November 20, 2008

Everyone seems to agree that flooding the market with empty, foreclosed homes does not help neighborhoods maintain stability – either as a way of living, or regarding the value of homes. Empty homes do nothing for a neighborhood.

Recently some organizations are taking tentative steps to allow homeowners who are defaulting on their mortgage to remain in their homes –at least for the time being.

Fannie and Freddie Mac have announced that they are freezing foreclosure sales until after the new year while they review strategies and the future of their organizations. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. recently announced foreclosure-prevention programs that aim to reduce interest rates, extend repayment schedules and, in the case of Citigroup, reduce loan amounts, to help borrowers keep their homes. But the programs have focused primarily on loans wholly owned by those companies because they feel they have more authority to rework those mortgages.

HSBC is also making more options available to more people. For example, it is contacting customers before their adjustable-rate loans reset to higher rates and freezing the current rate or allowing the borrower to pay a rate below what the new rate would be. The bank also is lowering fixed rates for selected borrowers. All this in an effort to stave of foreclosures.

One way of stabilizing markets where supply exceeds demand is to regulate supply. That way the people who can buy homes can buy from sellers who can’t afford to stay in their current home. But, amazingly enough, new home construction is still going on – even in saturated markets. Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg suggests, only half-jokingly, that the Treasury should impose a moratorium on home building. "It sounds like lunacy, but we have to destroy the housing capital stock to help put a floor under the market," he said.

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Local Information for Lewiston, ID

Latitude: 46.400245 -- Longitude: -117.00103

ZIP Codes for Lewiston, Idaho	83501
Area Code for Lewiston, Idaho	208
Time zone for Lewiston, Idaho	PST

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Lewiston is the county seat and largest city in Nez Perce County, Idaho. It is the second largest city in the Idaho Panhandle region behind Coeur d'Alene. Lewiston is the principal city of the Lewiston, ID-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of both Nez Perce County in Idaho and Asotin County in Washington. As of the 2000 census Lewiston population was 30,904 (2003 estimate: 30,937). Lewiston is located at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. Its main industry is paper and timber products production at the mill owned and operated by the Potlatch Corporation. Because the portion of the Snake River between its confluence with the Columbia River near Pasco, Washington, and Lewiston is navigable by some oceangoing vessels, Lewiston has the distinction of being Idaho's only seaport and the western United States' farthest inland seaport. Barges of timber products, grain and other goods are shipped via the Snake-Columbia system to the Pacific Ocean. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Idaho 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Lewiston	Idaho	United States
Population	30,904	1,293,953	281,421,906
Median age	37.9	33.2	35.3
Median age for Male	36.5	32.2	34
Median age for Female	39.1	34.2	36.5
Households	12,795	469,645	105,480,101
Household population	30,242	1,262,457	273,643,273
Average household size	2.36	2.69	2.59
Families	8,277	335,588	71,787,347
Average family size	2.88	3.17	3.14
Housing units	13,394	527,824	115,904,641
Occupied units	12,795	469,645	105,480,101
Vacant units	599	58,179	10,424,540

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November 20, 2008

Local Information for Lewiston, ID

Latitude: 46.400245 -- Longitude: -117.00103

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