Excerpt from: US Markets
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| February 13, 2009 | | Obama Administration turns to mortgage subsidies to prevent problems | Forget the economic stimulus bill preparing to come for a vote later today. Instead, the new focus by the stock market is on a plan released by the Obama Administration aimed at helping the housing market through mortgage subsidies.
The new mortgage market plan is designed to actually stop delinquency. Under current plans to help mortgage borrowers in trouble, action is not taken until after the holder has missed payments. This process has been ineffective for more than a year, and the U.S. stock market rewarded the news of a change in policy and direction with a late session rally yesterday.
In addition to creating a program that stops mortgage delinquency before it starts, the Obama Administration is also asking for servicers to come up with a set of standards that can be used when determining loan modification.
This plan is getting better response from the stock market -- which is set to open higher today -- than the economic stimulus bill. Investors are unsure that the stimulus bill will be enough, but are more confident that this housing market measure can at least reduce some of the bleeding.
 | Topic Tags: economic stimulus bill, financial markets, housing market, mortgage subsidies, Obama Administration, spread bets stock market, spread betting U.S. stocks, U.S. stock market | |
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