Boston Community Capital's SUN Initiative was featured on Yahoo! Finance The Daily Ticker on October 21st. The article, "Mortgage Modification: What One Non-Profit Lender Is Doing to Help Homeowners," by Daniel Gross discusses the SUN Initative and how it's helping to keep homeowners in their homes.
Gross writes, "Five years after the housing market peaked, the mortgage mess remains a significant drag to the enconomy. Banks, policymakers and investors have yet to figure out a way to stop the cycle of massive foreclosures and the fire sales that inevitably cause. In September, foreclosures and short sales accounted for 30 percent of existing home sales."
"The calls are rising, from all points of the political spectrum, for mortgage modification — i.e., figuring out a way to let people stay in their homes even if they can't afford the current mortgage payment. While banks, the Obama Administration and the taxpayer-owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dither, one non-profit lender is taking matters into its own hands. Boston Community Capital, which has been active in the region for 30 years, last year set up the Stabilizing Urban Neighborhoods (SUN) initiative. The plan? Buy properties back from banks who aren't willing to modify. Then resell them to the owners who were in danger of defaulting or who had already defaulted —- at a much lower price and with a better mortgage. And all while delivering 4.25 percent annual returns to investors. The goal, aside from keeping people in their homes, is to stabilize neighborhoods."