Here are the first five paragraphs of a news item from this morning:
"NEW YORK – Citigroup says it is imposing a moratorium on most foreclosures as part of a series of initiatives aimed at helping at-risk borrowers remain in their homes — making Citi the latest big bank to announce sweeping efforts to try to curtail losses from souring mortgages.
Citi said late Monday it won't initiate a foreclosure or complete a foreclosure sale on any eligible borrower who seeks to stay in a home if it is the borrower's principal residence, the homeowner is working in good faith with Citi and has sufficient income to make affordable mortgage payments.
Citi said it is also working to expand the program to include mortgages the bank services but does not own.
Additionally, over the next six months, Citi plans to reach out to 500,000 homeowners who are not currently behind on their mortgage payments, but who are deemed as potentially needing assistance to keep current with their payments. This represents about one-third of all the mortgages that Citigroup owns, the bank said.
Citi plans to devote a team of 600 salespeople to assist the targeted borrowers by adjusting their rates, reducing principal, or increasing the term of the loan, steps known in the mortgage industry as a workout."
I'm sure that it will promote societal stability by keeping more people in their homes.
Query: How about people like me and my wife, who have at all times remained punctual and current in paying our mortgages to Citigroup? What sort of freebies do we get? Wouldn't we be better off defaulting, so that Citigroup can then reduce our mortgages too?
Just wondering!
My family, yours, and others, the ones who didn't overreach on their houses and have always paid our mortgage will be rewarded by falling home values, higher taxes to bail out other people's overspending, and higher interest and inflation rates in the future to help cover the losses caused by others.
ReplyDeleteI didn't say its a good reward, but that is what our "rewards" from this mess seem to look like.
The rats who take the wrong path get the cheese, and the ones who go the correct way get the electric shocks.
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