Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Bank of America donating 2,000 properties to Habitat

Bank of America has committed to donating 2,000 foreclosed properties over the next three years to Habitat for Humanity, which will renovate or rebuild homes on them.

The bank will also pay to demolish structures on the land should it be needed. The goal, Habitat said, is to boost affordable housing in low-income neighborhoods.

“The donation of these properties by Bank of America is a tremendous boost to our efforts to revitalize distressed communities all across the country,” Habitat CEO Jonathan Reckford said in a statement.

The donations could count toward the Charlotte bank's requirement in the $25 billion national mortgage servicing settlement announced earlier this year. Banks will generally get full dollar-for-dollar credit for tearing down homes or donating properties to charity.

Bank of America has the largest share of the settlement, at $11.8 billion.

Update: Bank spokesman Rick Simon said the bank does not intend to seek credit under the national mortgage settlement for these donations at this time. He said the bank plans to be able to meet its obligations through other actions.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh good. Maybe some of the families that BOA booted out will actually get their old house back!

Anonymous said...

You mean the old tenents who didn't make payments for years or let the property fall apart is disrepair, those old tenents? These will go to the homes for humanities deserving families who donate their time and focus on be responsible home owners and drawing their families together

Anonymous said...

yes, homes for humanity does a great job identify responsible and hardworking families to become first time responsible homeowners. great program! Great for BOA.

Anonymous said...

How many people do you know that actually takes cares of something GIVEN to them? Have you not seen the stats of how most of these houses look after they buy them with NO money down, and live of it's inflation for 5 years. Totally worn down. Why don't they take care of it. because they haven't actually INVESTED ONE DIME of their own money into it.

Anonymous said...

As a Habitat for Humanity retiree, please know that all HFH homeowners aren't given homes. They must put in 200+ hours of sweat equity building their home, THEN pay a 25 year mortgage. It is an interest free mortgage, but it isn't a free deal!

Anonymous said...

Why not give them back to the people who got foreclosed out? This is like a slap in the face to them.

Anonymous said...

They're probably not 2,000 properties people would actually want to live in. BoA probably couldn't sell them for anything so decided 'here take this land in the ghetto off our hands'

Anonymous said...

That sounds just as bad. So, the bank GIVES the house away to HFH. Then HFH makes the person work AND pay for this house? He receives the benefit of this work and loan payments? Someone has to. How much is HFH making off this deal. Why couldn't the bank just leave out HFH, the MIDDLE MAN?

Anonymous said...

People lose homes. some from irresponsibility, they didn't read the contract, jobs lost. And it isn't that a financier recovers much from the disstressed properties, while they lose money, pay taxes and insurance on these empty homes or homes that people may live in for free up to five years. For whatever purpose, and typically people can't even make an adjusted lower payment and catch up on taxes and pay insurance, the homes are released for short sale or in the case HFH. How HFH decides who gets a home or not is up to them, but i know it's been positive for at least fifty percent and in Los Vegas those are great odds.

Anonymous said...

I think the bank would want a responsible non profit to handle this and I think HFH has proven itself. Do some who benefit from HFH not know how to own a home? sure. but there are plenty of first time homeowners that don't know either. HFH did ensure that the people receiving these homes can't borrow against them to buy shoes, boats, tvs. And don't be so arrogant, being poor don't make you stupid or irresponsible. That is sheer bias.