With the downturn of the economy, specifically the housing market, many have tried to come up with ways to get “back on track”. Unemployment is high, and its hard to find a job. Many people cannot make their mortgage payments because they are overwhelmed with debt or they are out of work. We do want to put people back to work, and we want to get this economy going strong again. But how does this help people who don’t know where the next mortgage payment is coming from? Truth is, for the right here and now, it doesn’t

For years banks have been the facilitator of mortgage loans which make it possible for people to buy houses. Part of the reason we are in a housing slump is because these same banks allowed a whole lot of loans to be processed to people that were not fit for either the amount of the loan, or any loan. Once people cannot pay their mortgage, bad things happen. First, they stop taking care of the house because they are not sure how much longer they will be living in it. This negatively affects the neighborhood just by the bad visual the house now emits. Or worse, they could abandon the house. So now the neighborhood has to deal with a unkept house with no one living in it. Makes it almost impossible to sell.

Some now, are calling for the banks to bend to help the cause. They are asking the banks to become more lenient by lowering existing mortgage payments to reflect the new real time worth of the home. As we know, most homes are not worth as much as they were when they were purchased; especially homes purchased in the last ten years or so. Now, home owners are paying high mortgages for a home in which they will never regain the original value.

So far, no banks have really stepped up to the plate backing this concept. It does make sense though. If banks could find a way to recalculate a homes real time worth when moving toward foreclosure, they could lower the payment and keep the homeowner in the house. The alternative is to continue to see people leaving their homes abandoned and run down. The banks are then stuck with a house they really do not want and is worth far less to them. The homeowner loses, the bank loses, the neighborhood loses – we all lose.