homeowners? distress. people in our nd help as much as anybody else. and that's what we have focused on and that's what this settlement does. as outlined by the attorney general and hud secretary, there is a number of things that are going to help homeowners and help them a lot. i want to talk about two aspects. one is the servicing standards. a real strong bill of rights of how they treat homeowners in distress. in the past, it's been a dysfunctional system. homeowners don't get called back. they put documents in and they get lost. the wrng decisiong decisions ar. people are foreclosed upon while discussing loan modifications. a dysfunctional system. agreeme of guidelines has potential to change all that. and it's going to be incumbent on all of us to make sure that that potential is realized. we have the states. we have the federal government. we have a court decree. we have a monitor. a monitor that we never had before in this kind of situation to make sure that they do what they promised. and if they do, this as debbie hagan said, it's a sea change

homeowner. that does not seem like much for people who are under water 40, $50,000. the way this will work is we banksbe crediting the thank against their requirements to actually reduce principal, actually deliver benefits, but we will 19 been crediting them dollar for dollar. -- we will not be crediting them dollar for dollar. if the loan is highly delinquent, and a bank would not be able to collect on that, we are not going to give them $1 of credit for writing off $1 of the loan to regard we are going to give them far less credit, so india and what we are likely to get in terms of action -- in the end, what we are likely to get is in the neighborhood of $35 billion out of the $20 billion in consumer relief, so the masses region -- so the math is actually much more significant. we would be happy to go through the specifics of that. we have available state-by-state what adds to the total. our second thing is, a portion of those for homeowners who have been wrong was always designed to sit in p

why so hard for homeowners to do it through conventional format? >> well, as the president mentioned today, some 10 million homeowners now who are under water, and meaning they owe more than the home is worth because of the way that the home prices have fallen in the past few years so for more of the refinancing options, traditionally, you have to have equity in the home, and right now what is happening is that the borrowers don't qualify, and they are getting, you know, blocked from being able to take advantage of the low interest rates which is frustrating for the administration and also for the fed, because the low interest rates have been part of the monetary policy strategy for helping to revive the economy. >> well, let me just read part of what you wrote and again the story is available on "national journal" and underscore the election feel of the housing market, the u.s. policy experts and the relevant congressional offices were not brought into the fold with advanced briefings as is typical can with a policy announ announcement. what does

so those are the two primary sets of homeowners who will be helped. but keep in mind, what this does is avoid what we believe are unnecessary foreclosures. it starts to stabilize the market, the abandoned housing, the kind of things that bring everybody's real estate values down and the taxes go down because those homes are off the tax roll. >> and when will consumers/homeowners start to benefit from this? >> well, we hope very soon. the final inking of the documents hasn't occurred yet. that is supposed to be the end of february. but already the five banks involved have set up the phone calls, the numbers that people need to reach them. those are available on national web sites, on our web site, so we encourage people who are either dealing with the banks now for loan modifications or who think they may be eligible to make those calls to start to get paperwork lined up. and hopefully, even though this is spread out over the next three years on all the states who are involved in enforcing this, the homeowners who are looking for relief, and frankly th

homeowners under water. he's going to call congress to act on that. again, he's going to say, i can only do so much without the help of congress. that's a familiar refrain we heard in recent weeks and months from this white house. the president going to outline how this is going to help homeowners. i heard you talk about it. $5 billion will go to state and federal government, $17 billion will go to helping homeowners themselves. then you'll have about $1 billion that will go to the fha. it is changing the optics, you're right. >> obama has been selling a populist message the last few months. this seems to be right in his wheel house, fighter for the middle class. the right has been if not preoccupied, wrapping its arms around social issues in the last couple of weeks. there is some contention that is going to carry a rick santorum to some degree a mitt romney forward. to me, this seems, if you're president obama and you're speaking to the american public, this seems to be a very winning message. here is real action on the issue in terms of addressing

and the second group are homeowners who are under water. they have homes that are now worth less on the market than the value of their mortgage. and so they're not in a position to refinance or, indeed, to be able to get out from under that. so those are the two primary sets of homeowners who will be helped. keep in mind, what this does is avoid what we believe are unnecessary foreclosures. it starts to stabilize the market. it avoids the foreclosures and the aban donned housing and the kinds of things that bring everybody's real estate values downed and affect all of our cities when tax rolls roll around. >> and when will consumers, homeowners, start to benefit from this? >> well, we hope very soon. the final inking of the documents hadn't occurred yet. that's supposed to be the end of february. but already, the five banks have set up the phone numbers. we encourage people who are dealing with the banks now for loan modifitions or who think they may be eligible to make those calls to start to get paperwork lined up and, hopefully, even tho

as usual it's it would be a good deal for banks in the disguise of being good for homeowners the banks would be in the power seat of deciding how they use their portion of that seventeen billion dollars to do their job which is to work with customers to refinance or restructure their debt which is something that the government did with the banks when it provided them all these subsidies and bailouts a few years ago but which wasn't carried over into the homeowner community which is why foreclosures have continued to rise defaults continue to be bad in the housing market continues to be anemic so now nomi prins says that nothing is going to matter until banks mark to market the lousy mortgages that are on their books as for this deal for banks of course this is a probe of abusive foreclosure practices that's good news for them i wish i could tell you whether or not banks robo signed the agreement that i don't know but will they suffer that's of course the big question well one example i have j.p. morgan according to bloomberg won't even need to set aside additional cost to cover its sha

so why are some states leaving homeowners in the dust and who is really gaining ground in the g.o.p. nomination battle rick santorum or his wealthiest backers and how are the corporate elites with their endless funds pulling the strings in this twenty twelve election cycle. you need to know this and so it begins the battle for the future of america today president obama unveiled his vision for the united states by releasing his two thousand and thirteen budget proposal remember budgets aren't just numbers on a sheet their priorities and paths for the future they define what investments will be making as a nation moving forward and how we're going to pay for those investments here was the president today pitching his vision the budget that we're releasing today is a reflection of shared responsibility it says that if we're serious about investing in our future and investing in community colleges investing in. new energy technology and investing in basic research what we've got to pay for . and that means we've got to make here is some of the details are choices that the president lays

let's talk about the average homeowner.hen they hear about their mortgage coming down, the principal, how much of it is going to come down? >> it's going to be done on a case-by-case basis. potential -- >> reporter: $10,000? $20,000? >> could well be. could be more. >> reporter: economists tell us the average homeowner helped could see $20,000 knocked off what they owe. and their rate? the average american homeowner is now paying a mortgage rate of 7%, and $175,000 in debt. this plan could help bring their mortgage rate down to 5.5%, saving them $250 a month or $3,000 a year. judy and david nuthavun reached out to "world news" just today, hoping their bank now follows through on its word. they've been trying to modify their mortgage for three years now. >> i'm really hoping that it's not just rhetoric. >> reporter: and what about the people who lost their homes to foreclosure? in some cases by banks who fast-tracked foreclosures, robo-signing them, without even reading the paperwork? the banks have now agreed to pay some 75

john, thank you. >> this settlement is about homeowners. homeowners in distress. people in our country who need help as much as anybody else. and that is what we have focused on and that is what the settlement does. as outlined by the attorney general and the hud secretary, there are a number of things that will help homeowners a lot. i want to talk about two aspects. 1 it is servicing standards. comprehensive servicing standards, are real bill of rights of how they treat homeowners in distress -- bill of rights of how they treat homeowners in distress. the wrong decisions are made on loan modifications in the past. it is a dysfunctional system. this set of agreements, this set of guidelines and has the potential to change all that. and it will be incumbent on all of us to make sure that potential is realized. we have the states, the federal government, the decree, the monitor, a monitor we never had before to make sure they do what they promised. and if they do, as debbie hagen of illinois said yesterday, it is a sea change. in your enlightened self- interest, ho

result.../ in.../ smaller ...tax returns...// for.../ homeowners. homeowners.ck deductions for those earning more than100-thousand a year. their deductions...would be capped at 90-percent.those earning more than200- thoosand...would have their deductions capped...at 80- pprcent. (homeowner) "i &pthink is looking for money an ttis particular avenue would negatively impact the econnmy and i think theestate has to lookkelsewhere."deductions interest...localproperty taxes...and charitable donations.a spokeswoman for the governor...says those earning mmre than 100- thousand...would still get back 90-percent of their area reallors say any action by state lawmakers that results in less money being retuuned to homeowners willl have an adverse impact on the industry."(carte) "that's a huge incentive that homeowners arr always counting on that it's going to be therr."dwayne carte...of the greater baltimore board of realtorss..says homeowners...are still being stung...by lower property values. nd they can't afford ""o this issa new policy to back end taxes on peoplee" som

the bank will have no ability to say no and homeowners. do we get this program established, families have the power in their own hands to get a new loan and therefore pay off their existing loan, and services could not say no. there is no way that they can stop the family from being able. >> all the banks -- >> that's correct. holding back those families from refinancing, they don't have an option. refinance their loans today because their under water. i give them an option by giving them that path and allow them to do that. banks can't stop that because loans are prepaid will. every family has the ability. >> already seeing record losses. require movement of government resources. >> let me take that question on two levels. first of all, there is recognition. economists on all sides have recognized that broad scale refinancing is one of the most important things that we do, not only families in the housing market, but also the economy. so the average, $3,000 in the bucket. every year they pay their mortgage would boost consumer spending. a

portion of it, the hope was that it would help 4 to 5 million homeown homeowners. that was one portion of it. as the president said this morning, morning, while we've made significant steps, we've made real progress, just to take one example, nearly 5 million families have had their mortgaged modified since the president took office. foreclosures are down by almost 50%. the number of people entering foreclosure down by almost 50%. so we made progress. as the president also said, we're not satisfied. we've been disappointed that we haven't been able to reach more people and frankly, specifically, on this refinancing program, what we found after we rolled it out is that there were many barriers out in the market to more people being able to participate. we fixed the problems on their first liens but many of them had second loans and lenders were unwilling to let toes families refinance because of the second lien. so we went out and negotiated with those lenders and we got their approval to automatically resubordinate those loans. mortgage insurance. were standing in

wisconsin homeowners are supposed to get more than thirty one million dollars from the. walker is killing twenty five million off the top of it to cover general state expenses democratic governor jay nixon is playing do the same thing with the settlement funds in his home state of missouri so how are homeowners once again getting a raw deal all the banks once again make off like bandits literally conservative commentator david sullivan joins me now to give us his take david welcome back it's on thanks for having me as always it's a pleasure being allowed to take the other side of the position of ok well in that case let me as the obvious question why do you hate all moaners. well i only some homeowners and i want to tell you and your listening audience we should really sympathize with these banks they have been victimized by some of wisconsin's failed liberal policies and by unscrupulous borrowers many of whom or illegal aliens who really did not qualify who lied about their income on their no income check mortgages and subsequently defaulted those poor people they broug

a legal settlement that could help home homeowners rather who over more than their house is worth to turn a juror recalled are talking about this deal that has been reached officials announcing a deal between the states of the nation's biggest mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuse through a foreclosure abuses on a deal that would mean nearly two million current and former homeowners could get some relief from big mortgage lenders but the deal addresses a more sinister side of the mortgage crisis homes that were wrongfully seized because the banks cut corners government officials and five major banks that worked out this reportedly twenty six billion dollars settlement that we know it's twenty six billion dollars and it breaks down in a variety of different ways for days we've been reporting the expectation that it would be cash to states some five billion there are seventeen billion in consumer relief and three billion dollars for borrowers so they can refinance at lower rates . now are going to get into more details of what exactly this settlement means in our first interview toni

underwater homeowners will get an average of $38,000. those who lost their homes to foreclosure in the past three years will get an average of $2,000 each in restitution. if they still owe on a second mortgage, they could get up to $100,000 off the urn paid balances. you -- unpaid balances. bank of america, wells fargo, chase, and ally. mortgages owned by the government's financing agencies are not covered under the deal. that excludes about half of the nation's mortgages. >> the banks were reluctant to do principle reductions. fanny and freddy still don't. >> one alternative to foreclosure is a short sale. and as dan tells us, some banks are encouraging homeowners are encouraging short sales by offering them cash. >> reporter: you can't make the payments. you face foreclosure. then you get this letter in the mail from your lender that says "the short sale of your home will mean that you owe nothing more, and you will receive $30,000 to make a fresh start." >> even though this sounds too good to be true, it's real. >> reporter: peter har

some $17 billion is expected to be set aside to reduce the amount that homeowners owe their banks. the deal will also offer a check for roughly $1,700 to victims of robo-signing. there will be some money to help borrowers refinance, and the settlement should set clear rules on the foreclosure process moving forward. while $25 billion is a start, it is a small sum compared to the 12 and a half million mortgages that realtytrac says are underwater. but wharton professor susan wachter says the settlement could provide a way for banks to head off another tidal wave of foreclosures. >> it's hard to say its a good deal-- its a heavily negotiated deal on both sides. and what's really a good deal about it is, in fact, we can find stability in the housing market, that will be good for banks, that will be good for the homeowners who are underwater, and that will be good for the overall economy. >> reporter: if nothing else, the settlement is expected to formally put an end to robo- signing. that's when bank employees okayed foreclosures without properly checking documents. the settlement set

the average homeowner under water today is under water by about $50,000. if you participate in this program, the million people, you're going to get about $17,000. that makes a dent, but in the larger picture of what's happening, it may not solve the problem. >> i'm hearing a negative assessment from you and others. >> i hate to say that. i think it's going to help us, but it's marginal. it's a million people. there are 11 million people in this country under water. to appreciate how to get the housing market back, this is only one component of the pie. >> thank you for the honesty. andrew ross sorkin, always a pleasure. thanks for being with us tonight. >>> there is more information on all of this. we put it on our website this evening, nbcnightlynews.com. >>> on another front, there is big news on education. ten states have gotten something they wanted for years. they've been freed from the requirements of the bush era one size fits all, as it's called, education law known as no child left behind. our education correspondent rehema ellis is live for us t

homeowners who lost their homes could get checks worth $2,000. the banks will also be required to reduce the principle owed on loans for about one million homeowners. but the majority of the mortgages are owned rather by fannie mae and freddie mac and they are not covered by this deal. it's probably going to take months before homeowners can learn if they're even eligible for help in the next two months government officials will choose an administrator then take another six to nine months to notify homeowners. the washington region is raking in about $1.5 billion in the deal and that's because maryland is facing the worst foreclosure problem in the region. so it's getting almost $1 billion in aid. this is the sixth largest cash injection nationwide going to maryland. virginia will receive about $480 million and the district is expected to get roughly $45 million. >>> the house has passed its version of the stock act and it bans lawmakers from insider trading. the measure was approved thursday with just two no votes. it must be reconcile with the

how does this help homeowners right now?clearly the most immediate benefit is going to be about $35 billion in help to homeowners, through refinancing homeowners that are underwater, by helping those behind on their payments get principal reductions. this will be far and away the largest principal reduction since this crisis began. that's immediate. but in the longer run, we have a cloud of uncertainty hanging over our housing market, with no clear rules of the road about how to foreclose, how to service mortgages going forward. and so one of the things that's critical here is lifting that cloud of uncertainty and creating a single set of servicing standards that homeowners and investors can rely on as we go forward. that covers all mortgages, fannie and freddie, as well as private level, fha and help for investment loans. >> some people saying, sure, it helps, but it's not going to get me my home back. what do you say to those that say this settlement does not go far enough? >> first of all, somebody who has lost their home

individual homeowners? >> no. i think he's talking how many people, individuals do you have under indictment in the state of massachusetts? >> well, it's an interesting question, because for eye long time since i came in '07 we fought to get a mortgage fraud statute. i think you have to understand that for many states the criminal tools are well behind the eight ball. because much of this activity has been real preempted by federal regulation, states and including states like massachusetts, haven't had all of the tools to go after criminal behavior. i've been a prosecutor for a long time. i brought ftough cases on publi corruption and we have mortgage fraud cases now. if i can bring in a criminal case, i'm going to do it. i have to have the discovery available. i have to have the facts. criminal case, i think, people misunderstand are always difficult to make. we will continue to do that. i also know that we have to pursue the civil remedies to make sure that we get the economic relief for people. if you're being

now because more than twenty five percent of homeowners are currently underwater on their mortgages but i understand that this is going to work out to like two thousand dollars per home i mean that's that's that's last test you got better go bad and you are one hundred thousand dollars under underwater exactly right that's the bad news is that this twenty five billion dollars even if all of it were to go toward principal reduction which we don't think it will and even if it were going to go toward just homeowners which we don't think it will even if that were the case you know americans collectively just hold just just homeowners people that live in their houses and their mortgages their is their is their main form of debt . are are collectively more than three hundred billion dollars underwater on their mortgages and so you know twenty five twenty five billion dollars doesn't need to get it's a very small book in a very small drop in a very big bucket doesn't even doesn't even start to address the problem so why are we even having a conversation about this i mean you and me but you

so what are homeowners to believe? >> well, judy, let's let folks look at the proposal and evaluate it. and, again, the idea that somebody who's done all the right things-- a family that's paid their mortgage, despite the fact that they're under water, for years through this crisis, the idea that they coun't benefit from record-low interest rates today is inherently unfair, and we've made these changes. they've been broadly supported for families that have fannie mae and freddie mac or f.h.a. mornings. we ought to be the same thing. it's a simple matter of fairness. i think when folks in congress take a look at this, they will support it, as have a broad range of economists across the board who believe this is one of the most important steps we can take for the housing market and for the economy more broadly. >> woodruff: mr. secretary, what do you say to the argument from not only the speaker but other republicans, including those running for president, when it comes to the housing crisis in this country, the market o

officials hail a $25 billion mortgage settlement as long overdue, but critics argue, not enough homeowners will benefit. >>> and the jobs file. the fbi releases hundreds of page of material about apple the fbi releases hundreds of page of material about apple co-founder, steve jobs. captioning funded by cbs this is the "cbs morning news" for friday, february 10, 2012. >>> good morning everybody. thanks for joining us. i'm betty nguyen. mitt romney heads into the belly of the beast today trying to win over conservative activists who have so far failed to support his candidacy. members of the influential conservative political action conference are holding their annual convention in washington. most don't think romney is conservative enough. susan mcginnis is in washington with details on that. good morning, susan. >> good morning, betty. the thousands of conservatives that are here in washington right now for this huge conference may not be rallying around mitt romney right now, but they are unified in their goal of defeating president obama and their latest rallying cry, the president's po

[applause] today i'm also proposing a homeowners bill of rights. one straightforward set of common sense rules of the road that every family knows they can count on when they're shopping for a mortgage. no more hidden fees or con being ins of interest. no more getting the runaround when you call about your loan. no more fine print that you use to get families to take a deal that is not as good as the one they should have gotten. new safeguards against inappropriate foreclosures. new options it avoid foreclosure if you have fallen on hardship or a run of bad luck. and -- [applause] and a new, simple, clear form for, for new buyers of a home. [applause] now, think about it. this is the most important purchase a family makes but how many of you have had to deal with overly complicated mortgage forms and hidden clauses and complex terms? i remember when michelle and i bought our first condo. and we were both lawyers [laughing] and we're looking through the forms and kind of holding it out [laughing] reading it again. what does this phrase mean? and tha

guilty of foreclosure abuses such as robo signing but who would this provide relief to exactly homeowners are big banks author and former goldman sachs managing director nomi prins will give us the real scoop let's get to today's capital account. so federal reserve chairman ben bernanke he testified before the senate today last week remember he testified before the house and the media that i saw today was wanting to hear if the good u.s. jobs numbers that came out since bernanke he had last spoke in would change anything about monetary policy or about what he said now remember the jobs report has been deemed good because the headline unemployment number went down a little bit to eight point three percent now bernanke he actually said this understates the weakness of the labor market in that hearing today but here's the thing do these monthly numbers even matter people who crunched them seem to say maybe not david stockman reagan's former budget director in an e-mail that's come out says you basically can pick and choose what you want from the reports to support your thesis or the trends t

there's a homeowner behind every one of those mortgages and a family. chris arnold with "nbr" tonight investigating freddie mac. >> susie: still ahead-- from the housing crisis to jobs, the republican presidential primary race heads to the sunshine state. we hear from a florida c.e.o. about what he wants from washington. if the nation keeps doing what it has done in the past-- extending tax breaks and putting off spending cuts-- the deficits, over the next decade, will top $11 trillion. that's the sobering update from the congressional budget office. and as darren gersh reports, the deficit dilemma is an increasingly tight fit. >> reporter: if we cut the deficit right away-- eliminating the bush tax cuts and slashing defense and other spending-- the deficit will drop dramatically, but the economy will stall out. >> taken together, these policies will generate a sharp fiscal contraction. >> reporter: if we wait to cut the deficit, that will boost the economy in the next few years, but as more baby boomers retire, the cost of social security, medicare, an

this homeowner only pays $76 in assessments not a significant loss in the write-off. but this one pays over $1,100 in voter-approved bonds and assessments. they will lose about 28% of a property tax deduction, a $400 loss. >> it's unfair. >> reporter: but it is something voters approved and something many say they will consider before voting on the next bond measure. now, while you're not supposed to take the entire property tax write-off this year the state franchise tax board says it won't enforce the reduction until next year and in the meantime an orange county assemblyman introduced legislation to allow to you continue to write off the entire tax bill. we'll have to wait and see on that one. remember, if you have a consumer complaint, give us a call, 1-888-5-helps-u. >> thank you. >>> well, roberta, you said winter could probably be cancelled. how's it look? >> ? >> i don't have the authority to cancelled winter. [ laughter ] >> if we're going to have a miracle march we would still need 12" of rain between now and march 20, first day of spring just to get up to p