With loan modifications, ask “why” to get behind the numbers
By Flickr user Alan Cleaver
Kimberly Miller of The Palm Beach Post writes about why the number of underwater mortgages has led to fewer loan modifications in Florida. She writes:
“With 46 percent of mortgages in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties upside down in the third quarter of 2009, according to analysts at Zillow.com, [real estate attorney Rashmi] Airan-Pace predicts more homeowners will snub modification plans that don’t cut principal payments.”
Today’s Tip: Keep asking “why” to get the story behind the numbers.
“It struck me that while all these people are complaining they can’t get a modification, there are those who are getting them, but deciding they’re still not a good deal,” Kimberly says. “The program as a whole needs to be questioned, not just the banks or the lenders who are supposedly not turning in their paperwork.”
The story followed a separate article by her reporting that fewer than 3,000 South Floridians had gotten loan modifications under President Obama nearly year-old program to stem home foreclosures.
