Unemployment is the anchor that is keeping our economic ship immobile in the storm of foreclosures and other economic hardships that many in our nation are feeling and have felt over the past year. Keeping people in their homes has been a noble venture that has been either highly praised, labeled lackluster, or dubbed an utter failure, depending on whom you ask.
The problem many lenders and homeowners are seeing is that no matter if they are given a home loan modification or refinance their home mortgage loan, they are either going into default or being forced to redefault.
Many homeowners are finding that in lieu of missing a mortgage payment, they are trying to refinance their home mortgage loan in the hopes that the low interest rate being served in our nation at the present time will bring a lower monthly payment to the table and make owning a home more affordable. However, unemployment is still running rampant and many homeowners are finding themselves defaulting on their mortgage.
Those who have already defaulted on their mortgage due to financial strains are given the chance to dig themselves out of a possible showdown with foreclosure, but even when a homeowner is given a home loan modification they are still finding that the unemployment curse can’t easily be beaten in the current job market and they are redefaulting as a result.
The monster behind the defaults and redefaults is also one of the main problems causing the Making Home Affordable Program to come under fire: Unemployment. While it may be deemed as a foolish program, the home loan modification venture is trying to keep people in their homes and despite them not meeting the millions of homeowners they want to help and unemployment causing many to face foreclosure anyway, the attempt at keeping people in their house can’t be looked down upon lest that critic have no concept of what it is to live in the real world.
Refinancing a home or using the Making Home Affordable Program can help homeowners, but unemployment has to be beaten first and jobs have to be made available for men and women so they can at least have some income to pay for the basics of life: food, water, shelter.
Programs to help struggling homeowners can’t be propped up by big banks alone. Those who are pointing out the problems should change gears and offer solutions. No program or policy is perfect, but it’s obvious nothing is going to help unless unemployment is reigned in and masses of Americans are able to go back to work.
