Via Scoop.it – Charlotte Real Estate
After months of painstaking talks, the nation’s biggest banks have agreed to a $26 billion settlement that could provide relief to more than 2 million current and former American homeowners harmed by the bursting of the housing bubble, state and federal officials said. It is the latest effort by the government to halt the housing market’s downward slide. Despite the billions earmarked in the accord, the aid will help a relatively small portion of the millions of borrowers who are delinquent and facing foreclosure. The success could depend in part on how effectively the program is put into effect because earlier efforts by Washington to help troubled borrowers aided far fewer than had been expected.
Still, the agreement is the broadest effort yet to help borrowers owing more than their houses are worth, with roughly 1 million expected to have their mortgage debt reduced by lenders. In addition, 300,000 homeowners are expected to be able to refinance their homes at lower rates. And 750,000 people who lost their homes to foreclosure from September 2008 to the end of 2011 will receive checks for about $2,000.
Via www.charlotteobserver.com