(Edit update: Dec. 26, 2010 The NACA event below happened in early Oct. of 2010. Since that time, there have been repeat NACA events in Los Angeles and other parts of the country.)
(Edit update: January 21, 2011, apparently there is another home foreclosure prevention event at the Sports arena - if you go and want to report your experience in the comments section, it would probably be appreciated by other readers as well as myself.)
(Edit update: January 22, 2011, When you google for these events, I think you need to use the phrase "Save the Dream", in quotes, then add the city you think the event is in. You can click here for this current event.
The NACA Los Angeles Convention Center "Save the Dream" Home Foreclosure prevention, Home Loan Modification event apparently drew 30,000 people and was extended from a five day, 24 hour a day event, to an additional sixth day because of overflow demand.
However, is this high level of demand a good thing, or a bad thing?
A NACA attendee could have spent as much as 12 hours going through the seminar and Home Loan Modification interview process. One person interviewed by channel 2 News says they would rather try and deal with all of it in one day then have the process stretched out over a year or two.
However, not all will be helped. Actually, no one knows what percentage of homeowners got actual help, and there in lies the problem. Are 10%, 20%, 50% of the NACA event being helped? We may never know, and there in lies the problem. I spoke with someone (not from the event), who said their relatives went to a prior event, were told they could be helped, but then ended up waiting for homes for relief that never came.
It would be really helpful if a college filmmaker or two DOCUMENTED one of these NACA events and polled the people LEAVING to see how many were actually being helped. Are the tens of thousands of film school students so self absorbed they don't see the biggest story of the decade right there in front of their faces?
Imagine the irony of a college film student whose very own parents are struggling to put them through college discovering their own parents in line at the NACA event. Parents who were too embarrassed to tell them how tough they are having it making ends meet and paying for their own college tuition.
The local news reported that a "mortgage investor" was actually present at the NACA event. This was briefly explained by the local news as being the actual entity that agrees to "fund" the home loan modification. Why would any "mortgage investor" be interested in lowering their profit margin when they can just foreclose on the home? The lost down payment, plus all the fees that will be taken from the resale of the home, plus the reselling of the home might prove more profitable than actually helping the homeowne in the home, no?
An additional question that needs to be asked about the NACA "Save the Dream" event is just what are the banks. and the mortgage investor looking for above and beyond monthly income verification and proof of insurance?
What if these homeowners also have tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt at high interest rates? Would it not make sense to also offer CREDIT CARD PAYDOWN DEBT INCENTIVES to homeowners who are trying to get a lower monthly home loan mortgage payment?
When homeowners attempt a home loan modification might the banks be thinking, "Why should I reduce this homeowner's mortgage payment even one cent if they are hopelessly in credit card debt that is growing by the month"?
Perhaps the home loan modification program has not been fully thought out and as a result HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF HOMEOWNERS, perhaps more, are not getting the actual benefit that the HAMP program was supposed to bring.
Until homeowners are offered real incentives to PAY DOWN their credit card debt via LOW LOW interest rate charges on EXISTING credit card debt, The HAMP Program may be a SHELL of what it could AND SHOULD be.
