Ten Things You Can Do to Stay in Your Home

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The Nation
Ten Things You Can Do to Stay in Your Home
March 4, 2009

Without resolving the chicken-egg question of which came first, the housing crisis or the banking crisis, we can say that the pace of foreclosures is accelerating with the downward economic slide. Every thirteen seconds, an American loses his/her home. In 2008, more than 2.3 million families faced foreclosure. If the government doesn't intervene in a muscular way, an estimated 6 million owners will lose their homes in the next three years. President Obama has proposed to attack the crisis with a $75 billion initiative, the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan. A commendable effort to directly address the problems faced by homeowners, the bill nevertheless has inherent limitations on who can benefit from it.

As a kind of home remedy, so to speak, The Nation and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) have issued a useful list of ten ways to prevent or fight foreclosure.

 1 Make sure your loan has a fixed rate of interest and not a variable rate. If it has variable rate, work with your mortgage lender to get it to a lower fixed rate.

 2 Seek out HUD-certified counselors when you are thinking of refinancing. Contact only nonprofit agencies such as the Legal Aid Society. You do not have to pay a fee to get out of foreclosure.

more at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090323/ten_things?rel=hp_currently