American Morning

Tune in at 6am Eastern for all the news you need to start your day.
October 25th, 2011
10:57 AM ET

Will President Obama's housing plan help struggling homeowners?

From Nevada, a state where 1 in 118 homes are facing foreclosure, President Obama announced a series of executive branch steps aimed at jumpstarting the economy this week, beginning with new rules to make it easier for homeowners to refinance their mortgages.

The White House said changes to the two-year-old Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) will help homeowners with little or no equity in their houses refinance by cutting the cost of doing so and removing caps to give deeply underwater borrowers access to the program.

Paul Jackson, founder and publisher of HousingWire, discusses the president's housing plan and breaks down it's primary criticisms with Carol Costello on American Morning today.
Filed under: Economy • Housing
soundoff (2 Responses)
  1. Scott Engage America

    The American Jobs Act was a political football that was never going to pass, especially with the surtax on millionaires to pay for it. The White House has tried to pass the bill piecemeal, but the Senate already rejected a $35 billion bill to provide aid to teachers and first responders.

    Now, the President is issuing executive orders to encourage community health centers to hire at least 8,000 veterans and design new financing guidelines to help struggling homeowners refinance mortgages (http://eng.am/rsFwWA).

    Initiatives that will help create jobs for veterans and help Americans stay in their homes are commendable. However, without details on estimates for how many jobs would be created or how much it will cost, whether this is a viable and worthwhile plan remains to be seen. Especially with government debt at nearly $15 Trillion and the Congressional Budget Office projecting that by 2021 federal debt will be over $20 trillion (http://eng.am/nviSti).

    October 25, 2011 at 2:43 pm |
  2. Mitchell

    Political and he is only trying to help himself get reelected.

    October 25, 2011 at 1:40 pm |
« Back to main