Many people across the United States are wrestling with their home’s mortgage payments right now and the home value rate is not getting much better at the moment. Some people are now weighing the advantages and disadvantages of renting versus owning their own home. In many parts of the United States home rental costs are nearly 50% less than it would cost to get a house with a standard 30 year mortgage.
Most people have two popular notions about foreclosed homes: that they are being sold at bargain prices and that they are only located in crime-ridden areas. The former is not always true while the latter is definitely not always the case.
There seems to be more and more discouraging news stemming from the overall failure of HAMP, the federal foreclosure prevention program, not just from mortgage and real estate professionals but from key Washington officials.
There were letters recently exchanged between one key senator and Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), on the subject of HAMP with Barofsky saying that only 1.5 million or so homeowners would get any type of mortgage assistance.
But the sobering news is that nearly 4 million consumers actually need this federal assistance. Yet, most experts are despondent at the reality of this number being attained.
