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President Obama has signed the stimulus bill today.  While this should be positive news, Wall Street is acting like we have all just been shot in the foot.  Apparently the overall consensus is that this will not work quickly enough, that not enough of the stimulus package is going to job creation, and that not enough jobs will be created to keep up with the rate jobs are being lost.  The end result is the DOW closed down almost 300 points, and we are heading for stock market lows last seen in November 2008. 

 This should be good news for mortgage rates, and as of this morning, rates are slightly better.  I would have thought we would have seen rates significantly better with the "flight to safety" being seen in precious metals and treasury bonds markets.  The yield on the 10 year treasury bond is down from Friday approximately 20 points.  Apparently investors are not also aggressively purchasing mortgage bonds.

We are expecting an announcement tomorrow on the Presidents plan to help homeowners facing imminent foreclosure.  It is important to note here that this announcement will help those who are already delinquent on their loan payments.  Those who are still current but in trouble might expect to see some assistance at a later time, but that is not the focus of the announcement tomorrow (according to what we are being told at this time.)

 The Feds and Treasury Department are sending audit teams to the larger banks looking for more federal dollars, in an effort to determine the value of the toxic assets, and to run the "stress test" to determine the banks solvency.  In the meantime, banks worldwide are experiencing the effects of this economic slowdown too.  China has passed a $600 billion dollar stimulus plan, as has much of Europe.  Does anyone besides me wonder where are these billions - trillions of dollars are coming from??

 Updates to the loan modification program:   Loan modifications are now taking 4-8 months for completion.  However, on the postive side, one of our partners has successfully closed modifications for over 1000 homeowners needing help with their payments over the last year.  This is 95% of those who have applied for help, which is a fantastic success rate.  (We do not have details on the success rate for the other group of attorneys we are working with yet, but will release those numbers as soon as they are available). 

 Due to the economic downturn, loan modifications are definitely on the rise, and banks are swamped with requests.  This is the reason for the increase in time to complete the process.  While you are free to shop around for a company to handle your modificaton, please be careful out there.  There are, as yet, no regulations for these companies that are sprouting up everywhere.  In fact, according to news on CNBC recently, some of these companies are being run by the same people who ran sub-prime mortgage companies.  Please draw your own conclusions about how confident that makes you feel. 

 Please read the following, and click on the link to hear more about homeowners success with obtaining loan modifications on their own. 

One of the primary inconsistencies about mortgage modifications is the vast ifference between what banks are saying they are doing to help homeowners, and what banks are actually doing. A member of the United States Congress, Maxine Waters (D- CA), recently shed some light on this issue on ABC’s "Nightline." On national television, Representative Waters attempted to make a simple phone call to a bank "help line." The bank claimed that, as part of its program to "help" homeowners, it made sure it was staffed sufficiently to ensure "short hold-times" for homeowners who called in. Interested in her results?

 http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6704983