Mortgage & Loan: Foreclosure Rescue Rangers

As the sad reality of mass foreclosures settles in across the nation, we're seeing a lot of news, punditry, and advice on how to handle the events that surround losing the American Dream. Some of the better links I've come across of late include:

* David Bach writes for Yahoo on six ways to avoid foreclosure. Bach makes the point that even when your loan is in default, many banks would rather simply work out a new payment plan than just take your house, as it costs them more to do so--and they'd rather have you as a paying customer for years to come. Well worth reading.

* Several prominent civil rights groups are calling for a moratorium on foreclosures , as the epidemic is targeting primarily--but not exclusively--minority homeowners who were snowed with predatory lending and lacking good financial educations. Money quote:

"Latino and African-American families are being pushed into high-cost and risky home loans. The result," said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, "is that more of our families are falling victim to loans that were not a good fit in the first place. This is eroding the hard-earned wealth our communities spent decades fighting for."

* Much like Best Buy sends out the "Geek Squad" to help you with your technical problems, some lenders are even dispensing mortgage rescue squads to help homeowners in trouble and get them back on their feet.

These are all positive developments, and we certainly could use them now--but then again, we could have prevented all of this years ago. I worry that these responses are too much of the "Band-Aid on cancer," and too little of the "castor oil."

Posted at April 11, 2007 02:08 PM

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As the sad reality of mass foreclosures settles in across the nation, we're seeing a lot of news, punditry, and advice on how to handle the events that surround losing the American Dream. Some of the better links I've come across of late include: * David Bach writes for Yahoo on six ways to avoid foreclosure. Bach makes the point that even when your loan is in default, many banks would rather simply work out a new payment plan than just take your house, as it costs them more to do so--and they'd rather have you as a paying customer for years to come. Well worth reading. * Several prominent civil rights groups are calling for a moratorium on foreclosures , as the epidemic is targeting primarily--but not exclusively--minority homeowners who were snowed with predatory lending and lacking good financial educations. Money quote: "Latino and African-American families are being pushed into high-cost and risky home loans. The result," said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, "is that more of our families are falling victim to loans that were not a good fit in the first place. This is eroding the hard-earned wealth our communities spent decades fighting for." * Much like Best Buy sends out the "Geek Squad" to help you with your technical problems, some lenders are even dispensing mortgage rescue squads to help homeowners in trouble and get them back on their feet. These are all positive developments, and we certainly could use them now--but then again, we could have prevented all of this years ago. I worry that these responses are too much of the "Band-Aid on cancer," and too little of the "castor oil."