With the changes in accounting related to mark to market....it pays for banks to let the homeowner foreclose. The banks can elevate the value of the houses they are sitting on........providing an incentive to keep them vacant rather than sell at current market value. Get used to seeing decaying rat and mosquito infested structures that the banks have over valued. Congress continues to make the situation worse as usual.........

I was dumb and got an ARM, but was told that my payment would never go higher than $1100.  What a joke.  The first increase, my payment jumped to almost $1300.  I called the mortgage company because I had all but $100 of my new payment.  I was told to hold it until next month and pay the full two months at a time.  They told me that they would not accept a partial payment.  The next month, I scrapped and saved and again was only $100 for two months worth.  I call them, and was told No... you have to have two full months in order for us to accept it.  We won't accept just one month or almost two payments.  They next week after my 2nd payment was due, I received a foreclosure notice.  I jumped and got on the ball and was able to get an Equity Line of Credit to secure the past amount plus their fees, all $5000 of it.  Now I only owed 2 payments (almost $2600), but to reinstate my mortgage, I had to pay $2400 in fees.  We got by for the next year and was never late, made every payment on time for 18 months in a row, when they told us that we could refinance with a fixed rate mortage, but they kept saying no, you have a foreclosure on your report.  We finally sold the house, paid both the ELOC and the mortgage off, and was able to get a VA loan since my husband was in the military and still had the option to use it.  Now, I own a house that is 1000 sq ft bigger than my old house and on 2 acres instead of 0.21 acres, but my house note is actually less than before.  And I only paid $20,000 more than I sold my house for... go figure.

No, I don't agree with bailing out the businesses, but I do agree that the banks do need to take a hit and help these people on their own, without government help.  It makes more sense to recover your money plus a little profit by extending the loans than it does to foreclose.  There was a house in my new neighborhood that was foreclosed on by the builder and it is almost 4500 sq ft and sold for only $169,000... after the repairs, it was estimated at $280,000.  What a stupid business deal there.  But the new homeowners got a great deal!

QUIT FORECLOSING ON PEOPLE AND ACTUALLY WORK A NEW PLAN THAT BENEFITS BOTH PARTIES!

My lender reworked my loan and it has made a huge difference.  I did not expect a free ride or a handout nor did I get it.  I think my lender and I both benefit from the deal.

I refinanced right before the bottom dropped out of the industry.  I took out money to put an addition on the house.  When the construction was completed, my house was worth the same that it was before I added a new kitchen and bath.  Now my mortgage is higher than the house is worth.  The original idea to refinance after completion of construction went out the window, leaving me with a very high interested (9.7%) loan with the threat of an ARM due in 18 months.

Instead of sitting back and waiting until something happened and I fell behind, I called my lender.  It took a lot of convincing, but the lender took 2 month's payments as a fee, reset the loan for a longer period (40 year instead of conventional 30) and decreased the interest to 8%.  Notice I'm still paying higher than prime borrowers with equity and my terms are for 40 years.  No handout.  BUT, the payments are now manageable and I'm not as concerned that I'll lose my house if the car breaks down.  I still have to be very careful and have cut all discretionary spending.

There are ways to help this.  I just don't want my neighbor profiting on my increased taxes.  I'll sign off on giving it to the government (to help the PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANIES)....but draw the line at the neighbor.  Fair is fair.....if 400k people benefit from this, the other 200 million taxpayers should too.  Gimme a check!!!!

Seriously, if an individual is helped, they should reap no profit from the property.  Ever.

I think every one even those of you that pay your bills on time with good credit can easily be in the same situation if your place of business closes.It is very hard to find another job right now.Our house was destroyed in a hurricaine we had no choice but to take out a second to help pay for the damages that our sky high insurance did not cover.we had good credit and paid our bills on time.We struggled with 4 kids to keep up then my husbands shop after 16 years of working for them closed down along with several others in the same line of business.He has not been able to find steady work since and it has been 3 months.We had no choice but to loose our house as well.Our mortgage company was not willing to work with us at all when we first fell behind.We never thought we would ever been in this situation either because we are hard working and paid our bills on time.

Who ever made you a promise of ownership? Who ever said bad things do not happen? They do. All the time. Forseen. Unforseen. That is life. You have a good roll you have a bad roll. You do what you can to protect yourself and let the chips fall. If I decide to "help" someone whos chips are down then that is MY CHOICE! Not Governement dictating to us all how much, who, or when. If you want to put it to a vote. Great. Let US tax payers decide. Dont you all understand the snowball effect this creates? Cant you all see the misguided dependence we have on this enormously expensive/huge government that is in place now? People rely on handouts and bailouts. This in no way keeps us competetive with other nations on any level. Trim the fat. Let the strong rise and lead. Dont puinish them by taking 45% of thier income in taxes to make sure citizen x can  have a house they have no business being in if they cant make the payments. Or paying for citizen y to have thier 7th child that WE tax payers pay for. You cant be competetive like that. Eventually it will put US as a country in the red permanantly. 30% cant support 70% forever.

William, this is exactly what i wrote about. people expecting $100k gifts.  let me ask you something, why should I pay for your $105k mistake?  

My husband and I bought much less house than we could afford so that if the economy slowed down (what goes up must come down) we wouldn't have to worry about our home. We have a nice home (that is far from fancy) and savings in the bank to help if either of us were to lose our job or have reduced income. I agree with everyone who has said why is it always the responsible ones who pay for the irresponsible?  While I think people were often "tricked" into homes they couldn't really afford, why should the rest of us help them buy this property - which will eventually (if you wait long enough) be worth much more? Maybe it would be more "fair" to figure out a way that the foreclosures won't be on their credit report so that they can pick themselves up and move on....but without any more of my money!

If we are going to bailout the banks and buy their worthless paper....why can't we demand that the banks refinance these home loans?

Blah Blah Blah, All I have to say is I am sick of people B.Sing about how their rates went up and housing prices fell! Seriously has america gotten that dumb. Does anyone ever look at past history of our country. Do people not read what they are signing. It really ticks me off when people yell unfair when they have not even done there homework. Everyone talks about corperation greed. When they should treally be looking at themselfs. What is wrong with America is this ME ME ME they screwed me over. Without pointing the real finger at themselfs for doing there homework and getting caught with there pants down. I have read for over 2 years now on MSN money of how this was coming. It doesn't take much to realize Re-estate goes UP and DOWN its had now many crashes over the past 50 years. This like 101 subject courses. Stop the blood shead. Don't let congress pass this bailout plan it will do no good put but us deep in debt. How they going to manage 700$ billion. When they can't keep track of the money from hurricane katrina.

The one thing this country needs is people with Personnel Responsibility for there actions is that really to much  to ask for? Or should I invest in a company that makes bubble wrap for our future kids.