A $26 billion mortgage settlement agreement was announced on Thursday that would bring relief to millions of homeowners who are struggling to hang on to homes that have lost value. Homes that are no longer valued at the mortgage price are termed "underwater". According to mortgage bankers there are an estimated 11 million underwater homeowners and nearly 3.5 million homeowners who are either 90 days or more late in making payments or are in foreclosure. As a result of the settlement, up to 1 million homeowners could see their principle reduced, while another 750,000 could refinance.
It's about time the focus of recovery was on the homeowners and not the financial institutions. What do you think? Was this a good move?
Taking a different approach, banks in New York are paying some struggling homeowners as much as $35,000 to sell their homes before they end up in foreclosure. The deals are aimed at giving and incentive to homeowners who owe more on their home than it is worth and who are seriously delinquent on their payments to sell their homes in a short sale. Full story HERE
I'm not sure I like this one, but maybe I would think differently if I was facing foreclosure. Opinions can change drastically when one is in the midst of financial difficulties.
Cars of the future are going to be considerably different. Several automakers are moving toward small, shared electric cars that will radically change the way people drive in big cities. Full story HERE
The idea of sharing a car with a neighbor has some appeal if one is in the city with the neighbor right next door. But out here in the country, we have to drive to our neighbor's house. That would seriously impact our ability to share a car, unless we all saddled up our horses.
For those who like short stories, my publisher is offering my collection, The Wisdom of Ages, for free today. It is only the e-book version that is free today, but it is also available in paper for those who prefer that. http://tiny.cc/qmigv
4 comments:
I don't know about the rest of it, but the small cars is a good direction. Not sure about sharing though - if the cars and small and efficient, sharing wouldn't be that needed. I've been thinking how nice it would be if everyone could only have those little smart cars - then none of us would get hurt if we smack into each other...
It would be like riding in Bumper Cars, Melissa. LOL
I hadn't heard about shared cars. I can't imagine how that would work. Small and electric may be doable.
I like the idea of the small electric cars, but also like thinking about ways to share. After reading that article, I wondered if I could start being more fuel efficient by asking friends to coordinate trips to the larger towns around where some of us go to shop now and then. Instead of me making a 30 mile trip by myself, get two or three friends to go with me. That could save some gas in then long run. Maybe we could take turns being the driver. I did that with some friends when we were all in a show together at a theatre 30 miles away. We car-pooled to the rehearsals and that saved us all some gas money.
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