Congress is going to vote on HR 1106 tomorrow. It's a bill amending the bankruptcy code to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgage terms. If it passes it may prevent bankruptcies by providing an incentive for banks to negotiate rather than foreclose. It may have direct impact on you by helping your neighbors stay in their homes.
I'm sending the body of the message below to my Congressman. If your interested you can cut and paste it to make your own email or just call you Congressman. Please pass this on to family and friends.
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Foreclosures are threatening families and destroying neighborhoods. I see hardworking families who own homes that have become unaffordable because of declining real estate values due to circumstances beyond their control, and families who were sold toxic mortgage products even though they qualified for conventional mortgages.
I urge your support of HR 1106, which would allow judicial modification of mortgages and help save these homes at no cost to taxpayers. The law would allow bankruptcy judges to modify residential home loans, as it now can for second homes, vehicles, boats, and farms. Residential mortgages are the only loans that currently cannot be modified in bankruptcy court.
The mortgage industry is against this legislation, but their arguments are empty. They talk about the sanctity of contracts. Yet these same lenders have no compunction about modifying their own contracts in bankruptcy when they are in trouble.
They claim judicial modification will cause mortgage rates to go up. That argument is absurd. The bills only apply to existing mortgages, so there will be no risk of modification of future loans.
They claim that this remedy is unfair to those who are current on their mortgage payments. To the contrary, it will prevent more vacant homes, which will keep home values up and reduce the billions of taxpayer bailout dollars going to the mortgage industry.
The legislation has broad support and has been endorsed by leading economists, 22 state Attorneys General, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Home Builders, AARP, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, and the National Education Association, among others.
It's a sound solution to a difficult problem.
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I should add that I did not draft the letter above.
I'm sending the body of the message below to my Congressman. If your interested you can cut and paste it to make your own email or just call you Congressman. Please pass this on to family and friends.
*****
Foreclosures are threatening families and destroying neighborhoods. I see hardworking families who own homes that have become unaffordable because of declining real estate values due to circumstances beyond their control, and families who were sold toxic mortgage products even though they qualified for conventional mortgages.
I urge your support of HR 1106, which would allow judicial modification of mortgages and help save these homes at no cost to taxpayers. The law would allow bankruptcy judges to modify residential home loans, as it now can for second homes, vehicles, boats, and farms. Residential mortgages are the only loans that currently cannot be modified in bankruptcy court.
The mortgage industry is against this legislation, but their arguments are empty. They talk about the sanctity of contracts. Yet these same lenders have no compunction about modifying their own contracts in bankruptcy when they are in trouble.
They claim judicial modification will cause mortgage rates to go up. That argument is absurd. The bills only apply to existing mortgages, so there will be no risk of modification of future loans.
They claim that this remedy is unfair to those who are current on their mortgage payments. To the contrary, it will prevent more vacant homes, which will keep home values up and reduce the billions of taxpayer bailout dollars going to the mortgage industry.
The legislation has broad support and has been endorsed by leading economists, 22 state Attorneys General, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Home Builders, AARP, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, and the National Education Association, among others.
It's a sound solution to a difficult problem.
***********
I should add that I did not draft the letter above.
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