1.5 million homeowners face potential payment shock & foreclosure in the coming months unless.....
Jim & Sally Martin of Jacksonville, Florida, are staring down this violent foreclosure storm - they will lose their home. They have fallen behind three months on their mortgage payments...they cannot catch up...and they cannot get help from their lender.
"My family has lived a nightmare for two years," reflects Jim on his family's struggle to cope with a financial nightmare and the impending loss of their home.
Amidst this potentially devastating national disaster, Fannie Mae, a major "investor" of home mortgages, plans to introduce new loan programs to lenders, hopefully keeping families in their homes.
"We have two children, ages 6 and 9...they're just children and we're putting them through this Hell," Jim said while shaking his head.
Sadly, the Martins join more than 1.5 million homeowners (many families with children) facing foreclosure.
Help may not arrive in time to rescue the Martins, casualties of more than $300 billion dollars worth of mortgages (adjustable rate mortgages) resetting from the "teaser" rates and exploding the Martin's monthly mortgage payments from $1700.00 per month to $2,300 per month.
"We have fallen and right now we just can't get up," said Jim.
"We're beyond the shock right now. We're trying to keep our heads and protect our children. Our lender cannot do anything to help us. No payment adjustments. No loan restructuring. Nothing. We can't refinance. We don't have any money to pay the fees and we're upside down."
Code-named "HomeStay", Fannie Mae is trying to get lenders (with whom Fannie Mae works) to refinance homes without first having to clear up borrowers' unpaid bills on their credit reports, albeit too late for the Martins.
Fannie Mae's HomeStay will stretch the loan term for this refinancing product to a maximum of 40 years from a current limit of 30 years, which stands to reduce monthly payments by about 5 percent.
In the meantime, there's a bunch of red tape to untangle. Rules that govern these bonds sometimes prevent lenders from reaching out to borrowers until they are 30 days late on their payments.
Typically, a mortgage lender allows 90 days or three missed payments before issuing a Notice of Default to a homeowner delinquent on its monthly mortgage payments.
"As bad as it is to go through foreclosure...and I wouldn't wish it on anybody....we will survive. My family will survive," Jim added.
"This whole mess snowballed on us, what with the house payments jumping around $600 per month, my wife getting sick and missing work & and the van breaking down."
As bad as it is, the Martins may face even more bad news is the foreclosure sale cannot repay the lender the outstanding balance.
In the next issue, we'll explain how the Martins and countless other families discover the definition of "exculpatory clause," "summary or default judgment" & other damaging legal terms further complicating an already horrible nightmare.
Sooner rather than later, unintended victims need help.
Foreclosure is more than taking a "house" away from a family; in many cases, it's taking a "home" away from a family with children. These families need a solution now, as this violent financial storm gains strength before our eyes.
