July 22, 2008
What's That Line Around the Capital Hilton?
It's blazing hot outside, so a long line snaking outside the Capital Hilton since this morning couldn't help but engender some curiosity - and sympathy - from onlookers. Turns out the line waiters are here for the free, five-day long "Save the Dream of Homeownership" event hosted by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. Michelle Singletary explained the event last week, which invited homeowners in danger of foreclosure to come to D.C. and meet with loan counselors who can help get people into affordable mortgage restructurings right then and there. NACA has reached agreements with a number of big lenders to allow for such restructuring options.
The hook for NACA is that if a homeowner leaves the counseling session without having been able to work out a restructuring with their lender, the advocacy group is offering to accompany them down to the Hill and complain to their congressional representatives in person. Any Hill staffers run into any rejected homeowners today?
UPDATE: Finance reporter Mary Kane is blogging live from the NACA line for the Washington Independent. She says nearly 400 people are in line, and that it only started to get busy last night, even though the event started on Saturday.
Photo by Matt Sedlar
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Thank god. For a minute there I was thinking that Faith Popcorn was pulling a train.
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"NACA has reached agreements with a number of big lenders to allow for such restructuring options."
That should read: NACA has bullied banks into offering subprime mortgages to people with bad credit in exchange for not filing frivolous lawsuits against the banks under the Community Reinvestment Act.
NACA's founder proudly describes himself as a "bank terrorist."
The last thing people facing foreclosure need is another loan, no matter how generous the rates. They need sell, take a loss, rent, and then try and put their financial houses back in order.
By the way, if you do take a NACA mortgage, you are also agreeing to "volunteer" your time at several of their political actions.
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They need sell, take a loss, rent, and then try and put their financial houses back in order.
hillvada, while I agree with you on that statement, you might want to at least admit this is not a workable situation for some of the homeowners. Housing prices have dramatically dropped in the past couple of years. Someone who bought a $300K house with little or no money down and an interest only loan still owes $300K. Sell that house at $250K and take the loss? That's not gonna work. If they had 50K sitting around, I think they'd be paying off more of that mortgage, if they were smart.
Really if one bank had ever come up with "Interest Only Plus" that would have been the best possible scenario. It should have required that you round up your payment to the nearest $100 so at least some equity would be built.
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Dose it really bother anyone else when Capital and Capitol are used incorrectly?
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not as much as they're, their, and there
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"That should read: NACA has bullied banks into offering subprime mortgages to people with bad credit in exchange for not filing frivolous lawsuits against the banks under the Community Reinvestment Act."
I'm skeptical of this analysis. There may've been bullying by housing advocates, but not likely under the threat of CRA litigation. No private right of action in those hills...at least none that I'm aware of.
Even if there was bullying, is there evidence that banks capitulated? Seems like much of the subprime lending may've been undertaken by nonbank mortgage lenders rather than banks. Further, to what extent are the housing credit problems caused by the credit quality of subprime borrowers rather than poor underwriting and nontraditional mortgage structures? It's one thing to blame housing advocates if borrowers never had a chance at repayment. It's another thing entirely if subprime borrowers could've handled a 30-yr fixed rate REM but were sold an interest-only 3/27 that wasn't underwritten at the fully indexed rate.
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I'm more pissed off when people say "very unique," "not uninspired," or "aspirational time horizon."
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This morning, that line snakes east down K, north through the alley to L, and back west down L.
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Just walked past the line....guess there are more foreclosures in DC than everyone thought...thats one long line
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is it just DC homeowners, are are these people from all over?