ACORN and understanding reality
By: PAUL JACKSON
April 10, 2009 10:11 AM CST
For weeks, I’ve been getting emails from readers about this survey released by the consumer group ACORN about a month ago. A refresher on the finer points of the survey:
In the first effort of its kind, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) surveyed all major mortgage servicing companies in the nation, and has found that at least 76% of outstanding mortgage loans are serviced by companies who have committed to implementing the Obama plan.
I’ve received all sort of emails saying that we needed to cover this item here at HousingWire, either as good news, or to call ACORN to the mat on some sort of BS. We didn’t cover this “news” for one very simple reason: the study is meaningless and says nothing.
It’s not hard to find out who manages 76 percent of the nation’s outstanding mortgage loans, folks. Four banks: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs. Add ResCap/GMAC into that list, and you’re roughly at 76 percent. Some sluething by the folks over there at ACORN, right?
More importantly, all five of those firms received TARP funding from the government. Meaning that they don’t have a choice as to whether they will participate; participation is compulsory for such institutions. What ACORN didn’t ask was whether any of the firms being forced to participate think the program will actually work. That’s the money question, and it’s why we didn’t cover the ACORN study as news. Because it isn’t news. It’s just poorly informed research.
ACORN may not have asked the right questions, but in an upcoming exclusive interview with Bank of America mortgage chief Barbara Desoer, HW did. If you don’t subscribe to our monthly print magazine, you’re missing out — click here to subscribe today.
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April 10th, 2009 12:13 pm by Alberta Hultman
How this organization continues to exist and exert any influence, given it’s scandal-riddled history, is beyond me. This “survey” is an example of ACORN’s need to insert itself into every issue that it can, regardless of whether they have anything to offer. The best way to handle them is to ignore them and make them irrelevant. Too bad the mainstream press doesn’t get it.
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April 12th, 2009 9:59 am by Robert W Hunter
I think what we’re all missing here is that groups like ACORN won’t agree with anything that mortgage cos. do, unless that program additionally funds an ACORN type initiative. And I also think that the mainstream press looks at these groups as helpers in trying to cure the problem and do not recognize or understand that these same companies were actively pushing lenders to make the no doc loans and no income loans as they emphasized home ownership. They are a part of the problem and not a part of the cure. Not to say that companies like CFC, WAMU, Indy Mac weren’t plain stupid in making these loans. But the ACORNs of this world were major supporters and benefactors of those programs. Even now I’ve heard about them “helping” borrowers get modifications from cooperating lenders. And these are the same mods that are redefaulting at 50+%. I’m sure their response would be that lenders should write down more of the balance so that housing is affordable. But they don’t recognize that they are not helping with these modifications. Instead they are continuing to push for unsound practices and using the media and politicians as their support.
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