banks and mortgage servicers expect that homeowners will meet their obligations under a mortgage. homeowners should have the very same expectation of their financial institutions. and with this settlement, those institutions will be forced to live up to those expectations. holding these banks accountable is what this settlement is about and helping the millions of families harmed by this crisis. it's why i'm so proud to join all my partners today and why i'm particularly proud to introduce not only attorney general tom miller but also to thank attorney general tom suthers for their leadership in getting to this four-star agreement. you know, many americans have lost faith in institutions in this country and our ability to cross party lines and to put country ahead of politics. this agreement restores my faith and i hope so many others' faith that we can do big things regardless of party divisions and geographic lines. this would not have been possible without the early and relentless leadership of tom miller and john suthers. i have come to call them friends and partners through t

pager mortgage. whether you're in florida and nevada, california, all right there in falls church virginia, done everything right, and because it's your responsibility , financial restitution is, investors, others, seeing the value drop by 25%, by two-thirds or 75%, and you know that if somebody else loses their home as soon as that foreclosure sun goes up your home loses five to 10,000. and so what we've seen is particularly in the hardest hit 80, a spiral of declining prices because of the number of properties that are coming on the market, and there is no question, if you look at the economics in the housing market, buying all standard metrics we've reached a level of prices that is important. the fundamental economics. and so there is a grave risk. these neighborhoods, that we let that the viral continue and continue to harm families, neighborhoods in a dramatic way. the second thing as insane, we should not sit on our hands. we know we can help those families to be able to refinance, do better,

were not even told that they qualified but instead were sold exploding mortgages adjustable rate mortgages things like that can you speak to how much of this crime was because companies were behaving in a racist way versus how much of it was possible because white homeowners are more likely to have done so before have relatives who have whereas black home owners more often were new to the process and easier to take advantage of basically white privilege. right i think there's no doubt that there was probably some combination of both of those things going on perhaps not always consciously in the minds of the there people who were selling mortgages or. looking for them you know people who were shopping for a mortgage to buy a home there's no question that during the boom there was a really large expansion in the number of first time home buyers of every race this was particularly true for minorities i mean if you yourself haven't had the experience of purchasing a home and perhaps don't know anyone else who has or don't have any sort of close family members or friends that you would feel com

charges of mortgage fraud. "washington journal" spoke with the massachusetts attorney general for about 45 minutes. >> we're back with martha coakley, the state attorney general from the state of massachusetts, a democrat and joining us from boston talking about the $25 billion mortgage settlement we heard about last thursday. ms. coakley, let me get into it. first, who will this benefit? >> it's going to benefit, frankly, from my point of view, the whole economy but where it's focused is real relief for two kinds of homeowners who have loans with the five banks that were involved in this particular agreement. those who have been delinquent. they haven't been foreclosed yet and they're behind in payments and they're preforeclosure. 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 homeo

rate, or modifying their mortgage altogether.ew york attorney general eric schneiderman helped lead the charge with all 50 states. let's talk about the average homeowner. when 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

better mortgage terms.o, tonight, millions of american families are asking this, what does it mean for us? how much? how soon? and abc's david muir talked to the people who negotiated this deal today. david? >> reporter: diane, as you know, we've been reporting from day one here on homeowners to get the banks to modify their mortgages. tonight, here what's different about this landmark settlement. these five banks have agreed to help homeowners across the board. not just those missing payments. all homeowners that are under water, are paying more thar their home is worth. for two years now, "world news" has reported on homeowners struggling with the banks, the same ones taxpayers bailed out. begging for help with their mortgages. >> we're taught to do the right thing. and we were treated like a number. >> reporter: thousands of you wrote in. the numbers tonight, still staggering. one in five americans with mortgages underwater, owing more than their home is now worth. on average owing $50,000 more than what

and mortgage service abuses. it doesn't touch the slicing and the dicing of the original mortgages.s sort of at the root of the whole problem originally. it's also not only tailored as we heard. it only touches one in ten of people owning the mortgages. on the politics of it, i think for obama it's a feather in his cap. it's a big number. it sounds like a big number. in proportion to the problem it's small. but it's still a lot of money. of course, it's the best, ideal for politician. people getting money pew through the coercion if you like of private industry. the banks. rather than out of the treasury. so, it doesn't add on to the debt. it doesn't add on to the deficit. people end up with some of the money in their pocket. so i think for him, it's a big day. a big win. >> well, forgive me if i am a little skeptical how it will play out. charles was right. politically it's a good look for obama. something is happening even if it's just on margin with something that the people are worried about. it reminds me of the b&g colombian music festival. six years later you got certificate

to get a mortgage. you should know that there's something called a premium -- a fee that mortgage current -- mortgage originators would get if they put people to a higher cost. that is a private sector thing. you should also know the we are talking about no document loans, no stated income -- income loans. loans with prepayment penalties. this is another private sector thing. it is the private label that is responsible for all of these mortgages that ended up being offered as triple a, but were actually not credit-worthy performing loans. i think it is important to bear in mind. if this housing crisis was not created by the cra - it was not even created by fannie and freddie, although they did exacerbate the problem after it got started, but it was created in the private sector. it is important for us to solve the problem, but also to understand how it started and where it started. host: the administration's plan for housing goes beyond mortgage refinancing package as. this is a cbs news story about it.

caller: i want to comment about the mortgage crash terrapin -- mortgage crash. i was a mortgage broker in atlanta from 2004, to 2007, and i saw the the lack of oversight by the sec, allowing mortgage companies to create their own way of making mortgages without any kind of repercussions about whether they are legal or not, allowed them to basically do anything they wanted to do. thus, we had the mortgage bubble burst because freddie mac sold worthless paper. another thing i want to ask you reaching all the congressman that ran in the last election -- ask you -- all the congressman that ran in the last election ran with the pretense of creating jobs, and all the bills have failed. i think the republican regime is more after destroying president obama than doing what is right for the country. guest: you hit on a number of things. about the mortgage crisis -- it is ok if a private company makes bad decisions. it is ok as consumers make bad decisions. it is unfortunate for those families when they do, but freedom means freedom to make bad decisions. what made the mo

i think that mortgage insurance serves an important purpose in mortgage finance. you could argue title insurance, how come every time you refinance your home you've got to pay another 1200 to a company to come in and say yes the title is good and there's a lot of questions about that it doesn't make a lot of sense. mortgage inshurebes on the other hand is a way for the lender to make itself, the bank, more comfortable making the loan. they say, well, look, if jesse, we're worried about you paying it back because you only have $5,000 to put down and it's a $to o 200,000 house, mortgage insurance make the lender more comfortable. so ultimately it's probably a good thing. when you get into restructuring loans to prevent foreclosures, when you get into having all these different parties sign off on a refinance, this is one more party that can complicate the process. but overall i don't think anybody would say that mortgage insurance is one of the bad guys here. host: illinois, republican line. we speak to lucy. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you today? th

a lot of people get mortgages by insurance and then go under. but all 50 attorneys general tried to stop these funky mortgage lending practices. and i believe it was john a ashcroft at the time who shut him down. they said the state laws couldn't supercede federal law, but they cited like an 1800s law or 1700s law. i then heard rick perry while he was on the campaign trail saying that texas didn't allow them, the companies, to do that to the residents of texas. so i was a little confused when i heard him say that, because my understanding -- of course, i don't have the document in front of me. i used to use it on my radio show. however, it implied that the states were stopped from protecting the consumers. >> okay, nancy. martha coakley? >> i was attorney general -- i have been attorney general since 2007. eliot spitzer preceded me because i served with attorney general cuomo from new york, so the potential agreement you're talking about there was not when i was in office. i will say this, that as attorney general since that time, and knowing wh

have the ability to refinance, fanny mae or freddie mac mortgages or other mortgages. >> tom: let's talk about the ability of the guarantee that's being suggested by the white house, the federal housing administration already guarantees more than 1 trillion in mortgages. how much more could this new effort increase that guarantee, put more taxpayers' money behind home loans? >> well, first of all, let's be clear. this broader refinancing effort is something that economists on both sides of the political spectrum have all agreed is one of the most important steps that we can take to help the housing market, to strengthen housing prices and to put more money into families' pockets. but -- >> tom: so how much -- >> the point i'm making is that this would actually strengthen taxpayer standing because every loan that's currently on the books of fha orphany mae or freddie mac defend on the performance the housing market going forward. that's the first thing. the second is we would put in place very clear protections for fha. we think the overall cost is 5 to $10 billion, that would be pai

what about those of us who kept with our mortgages during crisis? will the banks just pass this cost onto the other consumers? >> well, they frankly are not supposed to. it's part of the reason why there's a monitor. why we're going to watch this. that question comes from, i guess, what is a really cynical population and rightfully so about the banks passing on fees and losses. we see that all the time in consumer protection. we see that obviously bank of america understanding they might find another place on to pass the fee on with a debit card and decided not to do that. this is not just about this settlement and about what we say as attorneys general. i think this is a really important consumer moment for people like that caller to say, you know, this is different ways in which we hold banks accountable including for the fees they charge, the prices that go up. you do have options. look, we've had had some issues with the national banks and the mortgage companies. take a look at what your community bank, your savings loan, what your credit union

and the mortgage rate.o lock in a 30 year fixed mortgage that means the person will be protected from any inflation. >> at the same time we talk about housing starts there were numbers released from others as far as foreclosure is concerned. the numbers they have is that one in 624 homes received a foreclosure filing in january up 3% in january. and then the average foreclosure sales price is about $167,000. so we have times where more houses are being sold but a higher number of foreclosures. guest: there could be an upward swing in any data. foreclosure has been trending down from three years ago levels. they're still elevated but what's important for the consumers to keep in mind is that the people who bought their home from 2009, 2000, 2011, they are one of the most successful home owners ever with exceptionally low default rates. so the high foreclosure figure tht aggregate is a legacy impact of the bubble years. people who unfortunately bought during the bubble years and it is still going through the

private mortgage insurance and there is an agreement to tra transfer that mortgage insurance and that was a major barrier before, and another barrier is the fees and the costs of refinancing, getting an appraisal for example and a vast majority of these for now could use an automated system for appraisal which could eliminate the cost of a full appraisal and many, many of the barriers that stood in the way before have been knocked down through the hard work of my staff and many others across the administration to remove the barriers there before. >> and the proposal? >> for this and the changes that we announced without congress acting to the harp program that will allow more fannie mae and freddie mac borrowers to refinance. >> shaun donovan in the white house briefing room, and the full program is available on cspan.o cspan.org, and you can check out the video library. you are listening to c-span radio. >>> senator john thune is sponsor of a bill to stop the bonuses for fannie mae and freddie mac executives. he is joining us on capitol hill tonight. thank you, senator thune. >> grea

low mortgage rates.hat's pretty important because a lot of people have not been able to do this, they were too underwater. there's a third group of people who will be helped. these are people improperly foreclosed on sometime between september, 2008, and december, 2011. those people will get a check. $1500 to $2000. the big question everyone is asking me, how do i know if this is me? remember, these are nonfannie and freddie loans. you need to go to the website that's been set up by the government for this. get the phone number of your servicer and start working right now. they want to get this money out within three years. >> i've had tweets and questions about what happens to fannie and freddie mortgages. we've already had a couple of programs and this one is specifically tied to some of these improper practices where people have been foreclosed. stay where you are, i want to get back to this in just a moment. first opt to bring in sean donovan, the secretary of housing and urban development. thank you

it means your mortgage, your house is under water. here in falls church, home values have fallen by about a quarter of their peak. in places like las vegas, more than half of all home owners are under water, more than half. so it's going to take awhile for those prices to rise again, but there are actions we can take right now to provide some relief to folks who have been responsible, have done the right thing, and are making their payments on time. already thanks to the outstanding work in part of my secretary of housing and urban development, shaun donovan, who's here today. there he is, the good looking guy in the front here. the housing plan we launched a couple of years ago has helped nearly 1 million responsible home owners refinance their mortgages, and they are saving an average of $300 on their payments each month, $300, which is great. but i'll be honest, the programs that we put forward haven't worked at the scale that we hoped, not as many people have taken advantage of it as we wanted. mortgage rates are as low as they've

mortgage market function. if jesse wants to get a loan and the banker says, i don't know, look at the guy, the economy is weak, maybe banks would be less likely to make loans. then when the economy is barely clawing its way out of recession, although -- what freddie mac does, they say, look, we will guarantee jesse's loans, don't worry. if he does not pay, we will cover it. what that does, that is a very helpful thing for the mortgage market to function. it greases the gears. that allows people who are qualified to get home loans. now, nothing in our story takes any issue with that. on the other hand, though, there is a separate part of the company that acts basically like a hedge fund. over the years, it has accumulated hundreds of billions of dollars of mortgages and other investments, and it is those two sides of the company that can be in conflict. what our story about, on one hand there is this helpful part of the company, but it also has to set lending criteria. some of the ways they have been making it

flock to refinance their mortgages. so a lot of people take advantage of it and save a lot of money but this time too many families haven't been able to take advantage of the low rates because falling prices lock them out of the market. they were underwater, made it more difficult for them to refinance. then you have all the fees involved in refinancing. a lot of people just said, you know what? even though i would like to be obviously cutting down my monthly payment, the banks are not being real encouraging. so last year we took aggressive action that allowed more families to participate and today we're doing even more. this is the main reason i'm here today. [applause] as i indicated in the state of the union last week i am sending congress a plan that will give every responsible homeowner in america the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage by refinancing at historically low rates. [applause] no more red tape. no more run around from the banks. and a small fee on the largest financial institutions will

what about those of us who kept up with our mortgages? >> that's part of the reason why there is a monitor, why we're going to watch this. that question comes from i guess what is a really cynical population, and rightfully so, about the banks passing on fees and losses. we see that all the time in consumer protection. we see that, obje -- obviously, of america understanding they might find another place to pass a fee on with a debit card, decided they weren't going to do that. i think this is not just about this settlement and about what we say as attorneys general, i think this is a really important consumer moment for people like that caller to say, you know, this is different ways in which we hold banks accountable, including for the fees that they charge, the prices that go up, and you do have options. look, we've had some issues with the national banks and the mortgage companies. take a look at what your community bank, your savings and loan, what your credit union is doing in your community. people and consumers can take their asse

they approved the mortgage in nine days. >> reporter: north jersey community bank gave safi that mortgage and a better experience. but she is in the minority. many americans, no matter where they go for a home loan, now find they need a bigger down payment, piles of paperwork, and oodles of patience. to be clear, it's not that smaller banks have looser requirements, but they are, at least in some cases, more nimble. north jersey community bank c.e.o. frank sorrentino says his bank never offered easy money, even during the housing boom. >> since we've been in existence, our credit standards have pretty much been the same. we have this funny policy-- we like to lend money to people who can actually pay us back. >> reporter: the big unknown is what the more stringent loan process will do to the housing market. some say the pendulum has moved too far in the wrong direction, making it too hard for people to borrow, and too difficult for the housing recovery to build a foundation. >> i think going from so loose policy to so tight policy is not a good thing, and there are people who can actually

rate on the second mortgage than they do on a primary mortgage. to put you through a really, really tough, strict set of regulations, rules, they're going to go through every piece of financial information, past, present and potentially future. >> speaking of that, let's start with credit scores, very important for you to know your credit score rating in order to be able to qualify, right? >> i want you to get it as close to perfect as you possibly can. you don't want to give them any reason to say no to you. it will be tough to get the second mortgage, tougher than to get the first mortgage. not that it's impossible. >> you start by saying shop around, and look at your primary lender, whoever has your primary mortgage, go to them first and see the rate that they're going to offer you. why? >> certainly, you're a customer of theirs and they don't want do lose you, that secondary mortgage, that's something that they can sell you. they can make money off of it. they want to give you something competitive so you're compelled to stay with them. >> but

get government-backed mortgage assistance. even your supporters are saying that is not going to pass the congress. it was certainly the implication of what the speaker and other republicans are saying. 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. se

government 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 pre

on to the bondholders that actually own the loans so for every dollar you make selling fraudulent mortgages you have to pay maybe one or two pennies to the to the folks who pretend to be in charge of some kind of legal oversight group yes and my recommendation to for example the looters that we saw in the u.k. in london earlier this year just get your brokers license it's a series seven license it's easy to get i got mine in one nine hundred eighty two it qualifies you to steal and you have a legal license to steal money and this is what people should be doing there should be trying to reform the banking system they should get their brokers license and rape and pillage like the rest of everybody on wall street but again importantly here max the term is bond holder in this case in the united states case when the five big banks do not own the bonds in that situation the bond holders are shellacked in europe where all the sovereign bonds are held by the big banks bondholders will take no cut so this is what he is saying is that the deja vu in this case is a country. wide because when countrywi

the mortgage meltdown cost millions of americans their homes. millions more are still struggling to avoid foreclosure. for months now, the states have been negotiating with many of the banks over the price that the bank should pay for their role in this national disaster. today, they struck a deal. it will cost the banks as much as $25 billion, provide at least some compensation to some americans who lost their homes, and help others avoid foreclosure. one upon 1.75 people in all. wyatt andrews has more about what's in the deal, who it will help, and who it won't. >> we have reached a landmark settlement. >> reporter: the president calls it a great deal for homeowners-- $25 billion will come from the nation's largest mortgage banks. $10 billion goes to loan reductions for homeowners facing foreclosure. $3 billion will help refinance loans at lower interest rates and there will be payments of roughly $1500 each to 750,000 people who lost their homes to foreclosure. >> this isn't just good for these families. it's good for their neighborhoods, it'

resulted in mortgages that many buyers could not afford. i know they meant well but the article nound found that nearly one in five borrowersin the d.c. program are behind in their mortgages. are you looking into this particular program? because i'm not saying it's a busive but maybe it lack of, i don't know how you define all that but lack of judgment because you want to help people but sometimes if one out of five failing they've got to be reviewed. is that part of your deal or is that not in your purview? >> that's the first time the program you mentioned has come to our attention. it may be a local d.c. program. we had a lot of problems in the mortgage market in the last decade. we had a lot of practices that in retrospect weren't very sustainable, even though, as you say, many were well intentioned, though some of the practices were not well intentioned and were just fraud and greed. we need to be careful about what we're doing. the congress is now requiring us to do a number of things to clean up practices in the mortgage market. we t

foreclosure settlement deja vu all over again so this is isaac grad man a lawyer who specializes in mortgage backed securities and he writes today the attorneys general of forty nine states with oklahoma being the load holdout announced a record twenty six billion dollars settlement with the nation's five largest servicers over false and fraudulent foreclosure practices like robo signing good news right max no no no he looks at the details only five billion dollars of the total consists of cash payments while another seventeen to twenty billion dollars consists of principal write downs and other aid to homeowners at risk of default what this means is that once again regulators have allowed banks to shift penalties based on their improper service and practices on to the bondholders that actually own the loans so for every dollar you make selling fraudulent mortgages you have to pay maybe one or two pennies to the to the folks who pretend to be in charge of some kind of legal oversight group yes and my recommendation to for example the looters that we saw in the u.k. in london earlier this yea

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 even if 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 know the government the banks and why you know why are they saying the banks are is ok we'll let you not go to jail and by the way we're still going to screw the homeowners yeah so you know back back when this investigation started we were promised you know we were promised a fundamental we being the people the american people by the attorney general were promised that this would result in a fundamental transformation of the mortgage industry and the way mortgages serviced that it would you know they would make families whole and you know we. even told the people to go to jail so none of that happened somewhere along the line you know lawyer against lawyer we ended up with twenty five billion dollars so in bear in mind put this in