President Obama spoke to a crowd in Falls Church, Virginia yesterday 2/1/2012 expanding on his promises to homeowners he gave in his State of the Union speech. He has a new plan to help responsible homeowners refinance their mortgages.
Already, we’ve set up a special task force I asked my Attorney General to establish to investigate the kind of activity banks took when they packaged and sold risky mortgages. And that task force is ramping up its work as we speak. We’re going to keep at it and hold people who broke the law accountable and help restore confidence in the market. We’re going to speed assistance to homeowners. And we’re going to turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many hardworking Americans.
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 conflicts of interest. No more getting the runaround when you call about your loan. No more fine print that you used 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 to avoid foreclosure if you’ve fallen on hardship or a run of bad luck. And a new, simple, clear form for new buyers of a home.