today, I was asked what has Pres. Obama ever done for the African-American Community

[FrenchieCat]

19. Let me address your issues one by one....

Loan Modifications aka H.A.M.P - I helped a few people folks get them, and here's how it works. The bank, looked at your mortgage balance vs. what the property was actual worth on the fair market. If the house was underwater, meaning the mortgage balance owed was more than the value, they would FIRST reduce the loan by the difference (called a principle reduction). no taxes would have to be paid on that amount.

Example:
House is purchased at the height of the Boom Market for $250,000 with no money down,
with a 7% interest rate, 30 year terms.

House after the crash is valued at $150,000.

The modification would reduce the balance of the mortgage owed to $150,000.

The Interest rate offered, especially back in 2009-2010 was a little over the prime rate of 0%,
so most folks who did modifications around that time period ended up with a 2%-3% fixed rate loan.

There was no 50 year option that I recall offered.

The only qualifiers was that one had to show their income, as part of the reason for the modification
was to show that your mortgage payment as it was, was over 31% of your income, and the value of your home underwater.

Millions of people of color got such loans, although it is true that early on in the process, it was quite time consuming,
especially contrasting how easy it had been to purchase during the boom, since only a minimum of documentation had been required.

Folks would receive their notice of acceptance, be put on a 4 month probation, where one had to show that they
could make the payments, and once that was done, the loan became permanent, along with the fixed interest rate.
People could also, once the loan was made permanent, prepay without penalties...so if someone, once they were in a better position, could make a bigger payment each month....thereby reducing their principal at a decent rate.
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/nsc/faqlm