Mortgage aid deal could help one million: White House official

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A mortgage relief packaged hammered out by the US administration and major lenders could help more than one million homeowners avert foreclosure in the next two years, a White House official said Thursday.

A senior White House official said the plan, to be formally announced later in the day, would involve refinancings or freezing of interest rates or payment levels for borrowers with subprime loans, made to borrowers with poor credit records.

"No one wins when a house is foreclosed on," the official said on condition of anonymity. "The homeowner loses; the lenders lose; communities and neighborhoods lose; investors lose; and the economy suffers."

The plan devised by US Treasury officials with major lenders and investors would help...