Government’s Freddie, Fannie takeover could benefit Black borrowers

Defender:

Now that the government has taken over mortgage giants Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation), struggling Black homeowners could soon have their loans restructured.

“The government will have little choice but to reset loans in foreclosure,” said Margaret Thompson, a senior mortgage banker with Citibank. “Because if all the loans financed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae fall into foreclosure, the economy would never recover from it.”

Homeowners, like Bernard Brown, 40, are hoping their subprime loans are reset. Brown has fallen eight months behind in his mortgage and said he is preparing to move.

“I’ll never get caught up, so rather than waste time and making partial payments, I have been saving my money to move back to the apartment sector,” he said. “When I first moved into my home six years ago, my mortgage was $1,200 a month. But now it’s ballooned to $1,900 a month, and that's too much.”

Brown lives in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom frame house on the far South Side with his wife and 13- year-old son.

In Cook County, 33,003 foreclosure cases have been filed so far this year, slightly less than the record 38,467 filed in 2007.

Still, some homeowners said it’s only fair the government step in and clean up its own mess.

I'm sure some of you out there are familiar with the whole issue of sub-prime mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddic Mac, and other issues going on as far as the financial industry goes. A few financial companies have gone bankrupt because of this. Let's not forget those who are suffering thru foreclosure.