U.S. launches new mortgage aid program

updated 8:34 p.m. ET Nov. 11, 2008

NEW YORK - Once again, the government has offered another plan to help troubled homeowners. Once again, critics say it doesn’t go far enough.

The plan announced Tuesday by federal officials and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sounds sweeping in its approach: Borrowers would get reduced interest rates or longer loan terms to make their payments more affordable.

But there’s a catch. The plan focuses on loans Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee. They are the dominant players in the U.S. mortgage market but represent only 20 percent of delinquent loans.

Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said the plan “falls short of what is needed to achieve wide-scale modifications of distressed mortgages.”

With the government spending billions to aid distressed banks, “we must also devote some of that money to fixing the front-end problem: too many unaffordable home loans,” Bair said in a statement.

Democrats on Capitol Hill aren’t satisfied, either. “When the loan is chopped up into a million pieces and any investor can block a modification from happening, a program like this will only scratch the surface of the mortgage crisis,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

The economic crisis is still unnerving Wall Street. Stocks fell again as investors found few industries safe from the consumer spending slump. With Starbucks Corp. and luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. both posting disappointing quarterly results, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down nearly 180 points.

The financial crisis took on a new dimension on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for “emergency and limited financial assistance” for the battered auto industry and urged the outgoing Bush administration to join lawmakers in reaching a quick compromise during a postelection session of Congress.

The new mortgage assistance plan was announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which seized control of Fannie and Freddie in September, and other government and industry officials.

Officials say they hope the new approach, which takes effect Dec. 15, will become a model for loan servicing companies that collect mortgage payments and distribute them to investors. These companies have been roundly criticized for being slow to respond to a surge in defaults.

James Lockhart, director of the housing finance agency, urged investors to “rapidly adopt this program as the industry standard.”

Still, government officials had no estimate of how many homeowners would be able to qualify. Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee nearly 31 million U.S. mortgages, or nearly six of every 10 outstanding. But they have far lower overall delinquency rates — under 2 percent.

To qualify, borrowers would have to be at least three months behind on their home loans and would have to owe 90 percent or more than the home is worth. Investors who do not occupy their homes would be excluded, as would borrowers who have filed for bankruptcy.

Qualified borrowers would get help in several ways: The interest rate would be reduced so that they would not pay more than 38 percent of their gross income on housing expenses. Another option is for loans to be extended to 40 years from 30, and for some of the principal to be deferred, interest-free.

Though lenders have beefed up their efforts to aid borrowers over the past year, their action hasn’t kept up with the worst housing recession in decades.

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