There has been a lot of speculation that President Obama will include a new mortgage assistance program as part of his speech this evening. We get this from a recent MarketWatch article:
President Barack Obama may suggest changes to a struggling housing refinance program to try to double the participation in the program and help kick start the economy in his speech before Congress on Thursday night, regulatory analysts said. …
The Federal House Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie, may be considering a number of approaches to expand the participation of both lenders and so-called “underwater” borrowers of Fannie and Freddie-backed mortgages who owe more than their homes are worth. However, regulatory observes insist that all these approaches increase costs to taxpayers and damages mortgage investor confidence.
Of course whatever he pitches probably won’t make it past congress so on the ground level it likely won’t make much immediate impact. But it will be interesting to see what the plans are anyway.