Save the American Dream

subprimer.org

savetheamericandream — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:27:33 +0000

Check this out:

subPrimer, a TAPwire blog, will provide critical context on the subprime/mortgage crisis and rapidly declining conditions in global financial markets, with a special focus on Wall Street’s role in bringing about these circumstances. The site will also offer introductory discussions of important issues in the subprime market and financial markets in general.

This website was started as a way to update Wall Street and the Making of the Subprime Disaster (html version here), a report issued by NTIC, Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, and PUSH Buffalo in late November 2007 as part of their campaign to make Wall Street pay for subprime.

Industry Needs to do More

savetheamericandream — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:11:40 +0000

A NY Times editorial calls for more forceful steps than the Hope Now Initiatives. NTIC is calling on the industry to modify loans into permanently affordable rates, not something that only lasts for a month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/opinion/13wed2.html?_r=1&hp&st=cse&sq=project+lifeline&scp=3&oref=slogin

Small steps announced to help delinquent borrowers

savetheamericandream — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:01:45 +0000

Project Lifeline announced today. A program that six large lenders are announcing that will help delinquent borrowers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/business/13lend-web.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Immigrants hit hard by US slowdown, subprime crisis

savetheamericandream — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:02:55 +0000

By Adriana Garcia

As an economic slowdown and the subprime mortgage crisis deepen across the United States, Hispanic immigrants are increasingly in danger of losing their jobs and their homes.

Both legal and illegal immigrants joined Americans in buying homes they could barely afford when the market spiraled upward and many have been caught with mortgages higher than the value of their homes as prices have slumped in the past year.

Just as subprime mortgage payments rose and house prices fell, the economy’s slowdown has hurt the construction sector, which employs large numbers of Hispanics and other immigrants.

Unemployment among Hispanics in the United States jumped to 6.3 percent in December, up from 5.7 percent the previous month and well above the national average of 5 percent, U.S. Department of Labor statistics show.

And almost half of the mortgage loans in the hands of Hispanics are subprime, making them especially vulnerable to the housing downturn.

Full story available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7268297

NTIC affiliate gets Congress to take note

savetheamericandream — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:05:22 +0000

Central Illinois Organizing Project, NTIC affiliate, holds press conference with Senator Dick Durbin on fighting foreclosures.

How to fight foreclosure in Cleveland with NTIC affiliate

savetheamericandream — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:53:40 +0000

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=82292&provider=gnews

California Lawmakers Try to Halt Record Number of Foreclosures

savetheamericandream — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:44:09 +0000

Calif. lawmaker seeks to ban certain types of risky mortgages

By SAMANTHA YOUNG, Associated Press Writer

A state legislator on Wednesday will introduce a lending-regulation bill that seeks to mandate the obvious — that people who want to buy a home can actually afford the mortgage, property taxes and insurance.

The prevalence of exotic mortgages that put home buyers into loans they couldn’t afford to repay when interest rates jumped and home values plummeted has contributed to a wave of foreclosures across the country.

State Assemblyman Ted Lieu wants to make sure future home buyers do not find themselves in similar circumstances.

His bill would require mortgage lenders to ensure that borrowers can afford their basic monthly housing bills before qualifying them for a home loan.

Full story available at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/22/financial/f180005S15.DTL

African Americans & Latinos Pay Dearly for Subprime Mortgages

savetheamericandream — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:06:58 +0000

Martin Luther King’s ‘Dream’ Foreclosed

The subprime-mortgage crisis will cost black and Hispanic homeowners up to $256 billion - the worst financial hit for minorities in modern U.S. history, a new study finds.

“The dream that Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke of has been foreclosed,” Boston-based United for a Fair Economy wrote in a report set for release to coincide with today’s 79th anniversary of King’s birth.

Analyzing previously released research on the subprime meltdown, the report projected blacks will lose $71.5 billion to $121.6 billion on high-cost mortgages taken out in the past eight years. Hispanics will forfeit another $75.8 billion to $128.9 billion.

That’s the “greatest loss of wealth for communities and individuals of color in modern U.S. history,” researchers wrote.

Full story available at: http://www.scoopit.co.nz/story.php?title=Martin-Luther-Kings-Dream-Foreclosed

Pros and Cons of the Bush/Paulson Rate Freeze Plan

savetheamericandream — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:21:23 +0000

Rate Freeze To Cool Mortgage Meltdown
Eric Petroff

In the wake of 2007’s rising foreclosure rates, the U.S. government negotiated with a series of mortgage-service companies– Citigroup, Countrywide Financial, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo (or the Hope Alliance)–to create a “Mortgage Rate Freeze” program to alleviate the financial strain of resetting interest rates for subrpime borrowers in 2008.

In theory, this program is designed to not only benefit a targeted group of homeowners but the economy as a whole by reducing foreclosures and, therefore, downward pressure on real estate prices. There is a wide range of estimates on the number of people this plan will help, from the 1.2 million estimated by the Mortgage Bankers Association to as few as 145,000 estimated by The Center for Responsible Lending.

Read story here:

http://www.forbes.com/investoreducation/2008/01/17/subprime-ratefreeze-citigroup-pf-education-in_ef_0117investopedia_inl.html

What are cities doing to fight back?

savetheamericandream — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:36:41 +0000

Cleveland, ground zero for the foreclosure crisis, is suing many national banks for the foreclosure crisis. Calling them what they rightfully are- a public nuisance.

Read story here:

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/01/cleveland_sues_21_investment_b.html