Affordable Modification Program

The government's attempt to stem the tide of foreclosures and arrest the incredible fall in home prices have been, in a word, pathetic. One proposal suggested was for banks to offer low 4% mortgages -- a step in the right direction. But in extending support to buyers of homes, it completely ignores the problems of millions of families that already have mortgages. As a result, it does little to halt the surge in foreclosures. With more home owners likely to default this year, the situation is far from recovery in spite of a wall street surge since March of this year. The new rates, and lower monthly payments, would be especially helpful for homeowners with negative equity (they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth). Such underwater borrowers, prime candidates for

The problems that arise from housing are numerous. Housing takes up more than half of all real property tax. Not only that, it’s also the largest issue in a family’s budget. The federal government spent $38 billion in preferential subsidies and $2 trillion on housing in total in the year 2006. Rigid zoning codes prohibit certain types of housing from being built. This prevents some citizens from being provided with homes that fit their budget and ads to the chronic problem of homelessness our communities face. Too many houses can crowd neighborhoods and make transit difficult. They can also obstruct view and, when foreclosed upon, lead to plummeting property values.

In short, lack of motivation in exchange for more red tape causes investors and landlords to move towards more profitable options. This movement of money and resources tends to negatively impact people trying to find a place to live, most notably the poor. The National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) states that prospective customers must pay finder fees to find a rental property due to a presumably growing scarcity of available housing. As if this were not bad enough, in some communities rental properties are handed down to friends and family, so they never quite leave the market. In order to obtain housing, new consumers are forced to pay “key money” and other fees. These costs tend to impact young, single, and poor families the most.

Americans across the United States search for the perfect home, location and square footage of course a great price to pay for their castle. Finding an affordable place to live is ideal, and necessary for survival in this day of age. As the years go by the cost of living increases but Americans do not receive a cost of living raise. The demand for affordable housing is on a all time high, but so is the cost of housing in the metropolitan areas across the United States. America must take care of its citizens and should provide affordable housing programs, to assist Americans to either purchase or rent a home.

Another topic demonstrated in the book is inequality at home. For many, home symbolizes stability and physical security; for others it signifies an investment, an identity, or a crucial mark of citizenship. Yet, not every home and community offers all of these advantages, and not everyone takes the same path home. In recent years, buying a home has become more difficult as both wealth and race matter. High cost of home ownership is just one of the many reasons underlying the stratification of secure housing in a strong

In conclusion, homeownership in the United States have decline over the past years even being the lowest it has ever been, but has had an improving and strong market beginning in 2012 after a 27% decline from the 2006 peak, and the increasing homeownership rate is a worthwhile policy to allow the United State economy to

As a result of the housing boom from 2005 to 2008 this had caused prices of houses to increase around 30% within that time and I don’t think that employment incomes went up that amount. This has caused hardship in many people’s lives that have overextended themselves as well as made themselves house poor. With house prices rising up, it has made it difficult for people to be able to find affordable adequate housing to rent or to purchase. This has caused investment properties to increase in price which has also affected the

The amount of income spent on housing is an important component of the cost of living. The total costs of housing for homeowners might include mortgage payments, property taxes, and utility costs (water, heat, electricity). An economist selected a sample

Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) and Fair Housing Administration (FHA) are the roots to create housing discrimination toward minority especially for African American; they help the mortgage lender to make excuses to deny the loan to African American because they do not meet the requirements. During 1928, there was a huge crisis in stock market and caused many banks close and people faced foreclosure. In order to respond the crisis, president Roosevelt signed the Homeowners Refinancing Act to slow down the rate of housing foreclosures during 1930s (Hillier). This policy helped a hundred million people who was suffering from the depression and facing to lose their houses (Hillier). In addition, it also help many people refinanced their mortgage with low interest rate (Aalbers). The Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) used HOLC to establish a program to “appraise real estate risk levels in 239 cities” (Hillier), which “produced detailed reports for each city along with a series of now infamous security maps that assigned residential areas a grade from one to four” (Hillier). Because of the neighborhood rating system, “the HOLC was also instrumental in implementing and institutionalizing redlining practices” (Aalbers) that do not

Two economic factors affect supply in a stable housing market, price of related goods or similar houses, and the price of the good, best represented by style or size in the case of the housing market. The affluence of a community typically determines how much homes sell for in those communities, and therefore communities where a lot of people want to live become areas where average home prices are high. (Kumar, 1) There is little space in these affluent communities, and therefore little supply. A good example is New York City, where no homes are available, only apartment buildings, and very few apartments are actively exchanged each year.

Housing demand includes household growth, real incomes, real wealth, tax concessions to both owner-occupied and rental housing, concessions to first homebuyers, returns on alternative investments, cost and availability of finance for housing and the institutional structure affecting housing finance provision (Yates, 2008). The growth in the number of households and in real income results in the increased pressure on housing demand.

Multiple reasons exist for the the lack of affordable housing. On the demand side these include population growth and increased migration to urban areas, easily accessible housing finance, tax incentives and a “strong cultural preference for owner-occupied detached houses”. On the supply side, affordability problems are exacerbated by inflexible and slow responses to the need for new housing stock, lack of infrastructure and generally inefficient planning processes and development assessment by local governments.

The overheated house market has caused various social problems. The society has become an unfair place. A person who have a house in urban doesn't have to work hard, because the house itself is the most valuable property. However, for the rest, it is extremely hard to buy a house in cities like Beijing and Shanghai. The price of house is too high and still keeps increasing. Most of young people in China have to work at least six days a week and almost have no holidays. And it is common that adults still have to rely on parents economically. As a result, the housing inequality may bring discontent in whole society (Li 2864). I have a friend working in Zhengzhou. He always complains that he never has a vacation since he graduated. In order

The government has instituted a variety of programs to help alleviate the crisis. Various tax bills have been passed with an aim of encouraging people to buy houses and also to help the low income renters. In 2007 the government initiated a foreclosure prevention program dubbed FHA secure. The initiative is handled by the Federal Housing Administration and is an insurance program aimed at mortgages taken by those who have good credit

One of the first indications of the late 2000 financial crisis that led to downward spiral known as the “Recession” was the subprime mortgages; known as the “mortgage mess”. A few years earlier the substantial boom of the housing market led to the uprising of mortgage loans. Because interest rates were low, investors took advantage of the low rates to buy homes that they could in return ‘flip’ (reselling) and homeowners bought homes that they typically wouldn’t have been able to afford. High interest rates usually keep people from borrowing money because it limits the amount available to use for an investment. But the creation of the subprime mortgage