It has been a while since we last mentioned our Value Gap Refinance plan here on the blog — it was September 2010 to be exact. Yet, Eugene Ludwig, founder and the chief executive of Promontory Financial Group LLC, recently wrote an article in National Mortgage News about his plan to end foreclosures which reminded us a lot of our plan.

While Ludwig didn’t mention HSH.com’s plan specifically, he outlined an idea that was extremely similar to ours. On January 10, 2011 Ludwig wrote: Read the rest of this entry »

The White House is beginning to apply additional pressure on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce the principal balance of certain underwater homeowners. The underwater crisis, triggered by a massive falloff in home prices, has led to record-setting foreclosures and strategic defaults.

So far, Fannie and Freddie haven’t expressed any interest in participating in the latest wrinkle of the Treasury’s Making Home Affordable program, a principal-reduction initiative called the “Principal Reduction Alternative“: Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday

“New research: Majority say ‘walking away’ still unacceptable“:

As the economic crisis wages on, I’m curious to know if your thoughts on strategic defaults have changed. Late last year we divided the walking away argument into two categories: emotion and logic. While some borrowers felt as though they had a moral obligation to keep paying their mortgage, others felt as though the decision to walk away is a business decision, nothing else.

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Are you making monthly payments on an underwater mortgage? Have you been denied a refinance just because you’re underwater — even though you continue to make your monthly payments on time? If so, you’re going to want to read our Value Gap Refinance plan.

Our Value Gap Refinance plan has been featured in Fortune, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, Yahoo Finance, Realtor.org and lots of local real estate websites.

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Realizing the scope of the underwater-but-can’t-refinance problem in this country and the lack of relief that has been directed to this group of borrowers, HSH published our own concept on how Washington could assist these borrowers. Since we published the article — titled “Underwater Solution: Value Gap Refinance” — on Monday, the comments have been rolling in from readers, reacting to our underwater refinance plan.

Let’s take a look at some of the reactions this article has generated from HSH’s readers so far.

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