Column: Government homeowner efforts almost too little, too late

June 20, 2009 -- By Wayne A. Capurro, Special to the RGJ -- Reno-Gazette Journal

RENO--As Notice of Default filings climb to unprecedented levels throughout our community, through the Western region, Florida and other parts of our country, the Federal Government is, once again, on it’s way to the rescue. Through the Obama Administration’s “Making Home Affordable Program”, they claim they will save as many as nine million homeowners from foreclosure. Considering the crime that brought about the need for such a plan has the government’s fingerprints all over it, it’s the least they can do.

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Obama’s Mortgage Refinancing Program May Be Expanded

June 19, 2009 -- By Dawn Kopecki and Jody Shenn -- Bloomberg

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may get permission to begin refinancing mortgages with loan-to-value ratios above 105 percent as the Obama administration seeks to boost participation in its anti-foreclosure programs.

“We’re actively considering how to structure a program that makes sense over 105 percent,” Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said yesterday. He said a ratio of 125 percent “is a number” that’s on the table, though “not necessarily the number we’re going to end up with.”

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Fannie and Freddie May Refi Deeper-underwater Mortgages

June 19, 2009 -- Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The government may soon let mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinance mortgages whose balances are higher than 105 percent of a home's value, according to a Bloomberg report.

"We're actively considering how to structure a program that makes sense over 105 percent," Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said, according to Bloomberg. The story quoted him saying a limit of 125 percent was under consideration, but "not necessarily the number we're going to end up with."

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Fannie, Freddie in Limbo as Geithner Seeks More Time

June 18, 2009 -- By Dawn Kopecki -- Bloomberg

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain in limbo as the U.S. Treasury secretary said the government doesn’t have time now to deal with the future of the two mortgage-finance companies it seized in September.

“We did not believe that we could at this time -- in this time frame -- lay out a sensible set of reforms to guide, to determine what their future role should be,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the Senate Banking Committee in Washington today. “We’re going to begin a process of looking at broader options for what their future should be.”

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