The challenges set forth in 2009 launched an assault on the American dream.. Many lost jobs, investments, retirement funds, and their homes. The American dream evolved into a growing nightmare fed by fear and disbelief upon the decline of solvency. The extreme rate of foreclosure was to be counter balanced by the act of modification of the existing loan. The criteria were to have suffered loss of wages due to economic turndown, exuberant medical expenses, or to be underwater in your mortgage due to dropping real estate values. The government called on the banking industry to realign homeowners by rolling the numbers, and lowering interest to create a mortgage within thirty three per cent of their current income. Although thousands have applied, only five percent of these applicants have successfully completed their home modification.
Consider the far-reaching gravity of countless homes forfeited and the teaming emotional and financial ruin on despairing families. Despite the original conception of Home Affordable Modification, an obstructive smoke and mirror maze persist within the program. Entering into the modification course, the one thing people can count on is inconsistency.
A typical experience with all lenders is a countless change of hands for the clients loan process; many will begin with one Agent and within weeks never hear from them or be able to contact them again. There are endless calls and confusion of where your account lies within the process, only to discover that your information has been lost or set aside. Mean while as if the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing, prospective loan mod clients are receiving threatening foreclosure notices from one branch office, while following all of the guide lines given to them by another. One Oregon couple working with Bank of America was exhausted by endless demands for paperwork followed by a total inability to reach through the voice message systems to a Human Being. “We have been going through this insane process since May and still nothing solid, my husband has kept a file on every contact and each thing we have been told. It’s now four inches thick, and we are still nowhere in this. It’s a mess,” explained Mrs. D. The most shocking event was returning home one evening to find a card on their door from Bank of America determining if they still occupied the home. After months of negotiation, this lender did not know that they were still occupying the home?
Many other lenders are dragging their feet in the critical process also. Citi Mortgage reports a high application rate for home modifications and yet a relatively low closer rate. One woman’s efforts have resumed for eight months and still have not received a firm documentation of completion. Instead she reports calling weekly, paying the HAM payments on time only to repeatedly be told either “You are in the final stages, it won’t be long now” or “M’aam, it is still in the process, you have not completed the process yet!” The answers given by the banking Modification Agents seem to vary according to who answers the call.
With this unbalanced system eroding the good faith efforts of people desperately trying to remain in their homes, one does not question the high rate of foreclosure. However, it does lead a decisive mind to question the inability of the banking institutions to carry out a structured secure process to enable worthy homeowners success. The declining of this country’s economic system can no longer be tolerated. Indeed, every triumph achieved for each individual American to fulfill their fiscal commitment and continue the path of homeownership is a Win for America.
Valerie Kelly
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