US President Barack Obama will unveil a plan Wednesday to keep between 7 and 9 million homeowners out of foreclosure, using 75 billion dollars to stabilize a housing crisis that is at the heart of the country's deepening recession, according to dpa. The White House said it would offer aid to homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages, relax rules on mortgage refinancing and help neighbourhoods raise property values by renovating already foreclosed properties. The plans would also aim to lower mortgage rates to encourage new home buyers to enter the market. The new measures are designed to stem a record rate of foreclosures - more than 3 million in 2008 - that has undermined housing prices, cost financial institutions hundreds of billions of dollars and brought the availability of new credit in the US economy to a virtual halt. The crisis quickly spread across the globe. Banks around the world that took on US mortgage-backed securities, especially in Europe, have also cut lending and been threatened with bankruptcy. "In the end, all of us are paying a price for this home mortgage crisis. And all of us will pay an even steeper price if we allow this crisis to deepen," Obama said in prepared remarks released by the White House, ahead of a planned speech on the crisis in Phoenix, Arizona. Obama's home foreclosure support is the latest component of the incoming administration's plan to address what could be the most serious recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Obama signed a record 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus package on Tuesday. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week promised to inject as much as 2 trillion dollars in public and private financing into banks to stabilize the financial sector. The 75 billion dollars for mortgage help - taken from last year's 700-billion-dollar financial rescue package - would primarily go towards subsidizing agreements between lenders and homeowners to make mortgages affordable. The aim is to bring monthly payments down to 31 per cent of a household's salary. At least 6 million more US homeowners are currently threatened with foreclosure, the White House said. Home prices have fallen nearly 20 per cent in the past year and many homeowners now owe more on their mortgage than their property is worth. But Obama said the plan would not help those owners who had clearly taken on loans they could not afford, nor would it reward speculators who bought and sold homes on the market for profit. "Solving this crisis will require more than resources. It will require all of us to take responsibility," Obama said in the prepared remarks. "Individuals must take responsibility for their own actions. And all of us must learn to live within our means again."
