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Essay on Solving the Foreclosure Crisis

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The frequency of foreclosure in our nation today is dangerously high. The strain from the recent economic downturn has put many families and individuals in a financial chokehold preventing them from being able to make their monthly mortgage payments. Consequently, many of these people feel they’ve punched a one-way ticket to foreclosure. With all these homes being foreclosed on, we face a very real crisis.
The best way to solve this foreclosure crisis is preventing homes from foreclosing one house at a time. The American family needs a simple option to save their home. My solution is based upon the concept of the homeowner paying what they are capable today, with a long term solution for the homeowner to repay the entire debt eventually. …show more content…

The simple solution is to reduce the home owner’s monthly payment to an amount they can afford, by reducing the size of the loan balance. The framework would be as follows:
Government stimulus funds are applied to pay down the owner’s home loan to the bank with two caveats. First, the bank must re-amortize the payments on the lower loan amount; second, the government funds become a filed lien (second mortgage) on the home. This is a RELIEF loan.
1. This program is open to every low, moderate, and high income family
2. All participants must file a full tax return each year
3. The amount of the government RELIEF loan cannot exceed 40% of the home’s tax- assessed value , or $100,000 maximum
4. Government loans are repaid through the following:
 Apply IRS refunds to the balance
 Allow 401K withdrawals without penalties to be applied to the balance
 Apply a set percentage of federal entitlement money to the balance (Possibly 15%)
 Apply proceeds from the future sale of the home to the balance (Any remaining balance becomes an unsecured loan)
5. The RELIEF loan is interest free for first five years. The interest rate for the remaining years will be nominal (Possibly 2%)

EXAMPLE
Take a typical family of five that purchased their house in 2007 at the median house price in Portland, OR of $295,200. With a typical home loan of 6% interest rate over 30 years, they are making monthly principal and interest payments of $1681. After two years, they now

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