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发帖数: 593 | 1 http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bank-america-starts-mortgage-redu
Bank of America has started sending letters to thousands of homeowners in
the United States, offering to forgive a portion of the principal balance on
their mortgages by an average of $150,000 each.
The reduction for qualifying homeowners could amount to monthly savings of
up to 35 percent on mortgage payments, Bank of America said in a news
release on Monday evening.
The principal reduction offers from Bank of America Home Loans are the
result of a $25 billion settlement agreement earlier this year with 49 state
attorneys general as well as federal authorities who had been investigating
allegations of abuses over the handling of foreclosures.
“To the extent principal reduction and other modification tools help us
turn mortgages headed for possible foreclosure into long-term performing
loans, it will be positive for homeowners, mortgage investors and
communities,” Ron Sturzenegger, a legacy asset servicing executive, said in
the statement.
The bank said it planned to contact more than 200,000 homeowners who could
be candidates for the offers, sending letters to a majority of them by the
third quarter of this year.
To be eligible for the principal reductions, however, homeowners will have
to meet certain criteria, including: having a loan owned or serviced by Bank
of America; owing more on the mortgage than their property is worth; and
being at least 60 days behind on payments as of the end of January.
In the statement, the bank said it had started making such offers in March
to a narrower group of homeowners — those who were already in the process
of seeking mortgage modification. The bank estimated that the earlier wave
of trial reduction offers to about 5,000 people could amount to more than $
700 million in forgiven principal. But homeowners have to make at least
three timely payments for the reductions to become permanent. |
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