Our Client Bruce H. Levitt, Managing Partner, Levitt & Slafkes, P.C, was recently profiled on NJTV where he discussed the rise and fall of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Here’s some of what he had to say:
“I would always pre-screen every client to see if they could afford to make a mortgage payment. John was one of those people and I had dozens of other people just like him,” said Levitt.
He says HAMP helped perhaps one out of three clients who needed mortgage help. Nationally, 1.7 million people lowered their mortgage payments with HAMP — almost 125,000 of them in the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvanian metro area. But almost 800,000 modifications got cancelled. The program, announced by President Obama in 2009 as a response to the mortgage crisis, will expire Dec. 31. In the end, it was only as good as the loan providers that processed the applications.
“We’d apply, we would be turned down. We’d apply again, we’d be turned out. And in the process of applying — as in John’s case — we’d submit paperwork, they’d lose the paperwork. For many people that I believe should have gotten modifications, I don’t think its worked very well at all. The whole system has been flawed from day one,” explained Levitt.