WSJ: Housing Rescue Plan Adds 'Short Sales'

Just throw everything in... save everyone. It's only money and we can always print more. Via WSJ

• The Obama administration on Thursday laid out additions to its housing-rescue plan that are designed in part to make it easier for financially troubled homeowners to sell houses that are worth less than their mortgages. The newest initiative creates a standardized process and adds incentives for so-called short sales, in which a borrower -- with lender approval -- sells the home for less than the amount owed.
• The government also said it would make it simpler for borrowers to voluntarily transfer ownership of properties to mortgage companies through a "deed in lieu" of foreclosure, helping the companies avoid a potentially costly and time-consuming foreclosure process. (i.e. yet another cost benefit to banks with huge mortgage arms)
• The government will pay mortgage-servicing companies up to $1,000 and borrowers up to $1,500 for successful short sales or "deeds in lieu" transactions. It will also spend up to $1,000 to help defray the cost of getting holders of second mortgages to release their liens so these transactions can be completed.
• Another part of the program provides additional payments to lenders, servicers and investors for loan modifications in areas where home prices have been dropping. Payments under this program could in some cases total thousands of dollars per loan, administration officials said, and are designed to offset concerns that investors will face additional losses if the modified loans redefault. (more free money for banks with large mortgage arms - normally I'd ask "where is all this money coming from?" but money is now free - it falls from the sky and we can make all the mistakes go away, and help the oligarchs profit from the excesses they created - heads they win, tails they win)
  
• The latest announcement is aimed in part at borrowers who can't be helped by a loan modification. (is there anyone left to subsidize for bad decisions... err, I mean "help"?)
• Short sales have accounted for 15% to 20% of sales of existing homes this year, according to the National Association of Realtors.

And this quote sums it up...

• Thomas Lawer, an independent housing economist..."giving borrowers money to encourage them to sell their homes without having to repay their debt is a slap in the face to everyone else."
  

This quite frankly is the perfect program - it rewards those who bought homes with nothing down (renters we turned into home owners) under the superficial belief that "home prices only go up" ... and are now underwater i.e. facing reality. Ironically the government per a series of posts I listed the past 2 weeks is creating a new class of these same people - thankfully we have all the bailouts waiting beforehand this time instead of frantically having to create them on the fly - so the underwater homeowner of 2011? Not to worry - programs already in place to hand you money for your "mistake". AND it gives handouts to the same banks who had massively loose criteria that let said borrowers into these homes in horrendous mortgages in the first place. So those banks win with profits on the way in when they offered the loans (then packaged them to suckers across the world), AND they win with taxpayer handouts on the way out (the current phase). Can you hear the oligarchs laughing about all this? Listen closely (they are in Martha's Vineyards this weekend)

I'd classify this as yet another win / win / win - especially since money is free in this new era. Readers, please I ask you do not teach your children anything about "consequences" because in our society there are none. Just teach them: we always win - no matter what decision we make. This is a birthright. The government is our friend with money from trees showered upon us in case we are in danger of not winning. Which turns us from potential losers into immediate winners.

We're all winners in America. Hug your favorite oligarch.