Source: https://www.governmentrefinanceassistance.com/2009/02/
Timestamp: 2017-03-29 11:11:31
Document Index: 240328942

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 2', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 2']

Q: Should I pay someone to help me modify my loan?
Filed under Government Mortgage Financing Programs News A: No
Sure, if you can’t qualify for a refinance you could pay one of these many “loan modification” companies that are sprouting up like weeds to help you out. But we recommend against it. Those firms just charge you thousands of dollars to do something you can do yourself. Anyone can contact their own bank and seek a loan modification after all. You don’t need to pay thousands of dollars to do that. These firms are largely preying on the fear and ignorance of people in the current economic downturn. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t contact your own lenders yourself.
Comments (0) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 Help for unemployed homeowners?
Filed under HARP Program Loans or The Obama Refinance Program Speculation is flying freely about the pending eligibility details of the Obama homeowner rescue plan. Here is an article that suggests the plan and FHA may have stipulations to help people who have been laid off.
On Tuesday, a government housing official told a U.S. House of Representatives panel that the Obama administration is currently working on a way to offer more home loan relief to the unemployed, Dow Jones Newswires reports.
These plans may include permission for the Federal Housing Administration to help households in which a breadwinner has been laid off due to the recession, Vance T. Morris, Housing and Urban Development director for single family asset management, told the panel.
Comments (4) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 Obama team still working out eligibility details for new mortgage relief plan
Filed under Government Mortgage Financing Programs News, HARP Program Loans or The Obama Refinance Program We get this from a recent Washington Post article:
A day after President Obama unveiled his $75 billion foreclosure prevention program, administration officials yesterday said they were still determining which homeowners should qualify.
The administration is developing a standard for lenders to use in evaluating applicants that seeks to exclude homeowners who are not in real need or are too far behind in their payments to be saved. Officials have set some conditions for eligibility, including requiring that borrowers’ mortgage payments consume more than 38 percent of their income and that the property be a primary residence.
Government officials are working to finalize details before a self-imposed March 4 deadline when the program will go into effect and lenders are likely to be flooded with calls.
Comments (0) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 Summary of part 2 of “The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan”
Filed under Government Mortgage Financing Programs News, HARP Program Loans or The Obama Refinance Program Part 1 of the new Obama housing plan is for borrowers who are having difficulty refinancing but not is serious trouble yet. Part 2 is the loan modification segment of the plan for folks who can’t qualify for part 1 because of bad credit, being behind on the mortgage payments, or being too far upside down on the property to qualify for part 1. We get these talking points from this document about part 2 to the new Obama plan:
Comments (2) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 Summary of part 1 of “The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan”
Filed under Government Mortgage Financing Programs News, HARP Program Loans or The Obama Refinance Program Read the PDF summary of the new Obama Housing plan here. It is found at the HUD site here.
According to the summary the #1 goal of the new program is to help with:
Enabling Up to 4 to 5 Million Responsible Homeowners to Refinance: Mortgage rates are currently at historically low levels, providing homeowners with the opportunity to reduce their monthly payments by refinancing. But under current rules, most families who owe more than 80 percent of the value of their homes have a difficult time refinancing. Yet millions of responsible homeowners who put money down and made their mortgage payments on time have — through no fault of their own — seen the value of their homes drop low enough to make them unable to access these lower rates. As a result, the Obama Administration is announcing a new program that will help as many as 4 to 5 million responsible homeowners who took out conforming loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to refinance through those two institutions.
It sounds like this portion of the plan is similar to the FHA streamline program where you can basically streamline your conforming loan to a better rate at a reduced cost. Part 1 of the plan is for people who have a little bit of equity in their homes but not enough to qualify for a conventional loan refinance. The loans in part 1 can refinance up to 105% of the current value of your home. We get this from another worksheet:
3.How do I know if I am eligible?
4.I have both a first and a second mortgage. Do I still qualify to refinance under the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan?
The objective of the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan is to provide creditworthy borrowers who have shown a commitment to paying their mortgage with affordable payments that are sustainable for the life of the loan. Borrowers whose mortgage interest rates are much higher than the current market rate should see an immediate reduction in their payments. Borrowers who are paying interest only, or who have a low introductory rate that will increase in the future, may not see their current payment go down if they refinance to a fixed rate. These borrowers, however, could save a great deal over the life of the loan. When you submit a loan application, you will receive* a “Good Faith Estimate” that includes your new interest rate, mortgage payment and the amount that you will pay over the life of the loan. Compare this to your current loan terms. If it is not an improvement, a refinancing may not be right for you.
*Note: If you think you are a candidate for this part of the plan and would like a Good Faith Estimate contact us in the sidebar today.
For those of you who are in deeper trouble and are significantly upside down on your home value the loan modification programs with current lenders look like they will be beefed up a lot as well. See our post on part 2 of the plan for that scenario.
Comments (1) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 Obama unveils foreclosure prevention plan
Filed under Government Mortgage Financing Programs News President Obama announced his housing rescue plan today in Mesa Arizona. Here is an AP article on the subject. There were no major surprises in the general plan today — the plan will focus on loan modifications for struggling homeowners, including those who are upside down on their mortgages. The details are reported to follow and the plan should go into affect by March 4. We’ll post more on how to take advantage of the new programs as more details arise.
Comments (0) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 Stimulus bill reinstates 2008 FHA loan limit
Filed under Government Mortgage Financing Programs News In an attempt to stave off a financial crisis the Bush administration raised the FHA loan limits in 2008. While the higher loan limits helped, they obviously did not stave off a massive housing crisis. The problem is that the higher loan limits expired on Dec. 31 2008. One of the things the new Obama economic stimulus bill will do is reinstate the 2008 higher loan limits. Here is a quote from an article over at MSNBC.com:
The bill also reinstates the 2008 higher loan limits for FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “These higher loan limits are important to make mortgages affordable regardless of where you live. This will also help reduce inventory and improve liquidity in the overall mortgage market,” McMillan said. This is good news for many people all over the country. FHA will be able to help significantly more folks with these higher limits.
Comments (0) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Sunday, February 15th, 2009 On the efforts to revive the Hope For Homeowners (H4H) plan
Filed under Updates on FHA short refi program - HOPE loan qualifications As we have documented here in the past, the recently launched H4H program was a colossal failure. There was an interesting article over at The Washington Independent that delved into why it was such a failure. There are three reasons listed:
Reason #2 was and obvious problem because banks are always going to try to act in their own self interest. But reason #3 is a really interesting insight. It points out a structure and institutional problem that must be dealt with if the H4H program is to ever take off. The other interesting idea is to relieve the already overworked and understaffed FHA department of the program. But I suspect they will need to fix problems 1-3 before that matters at all.
Comments (1) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Friday, February 13th, 2009 Loan modification program emerging as most likely centerpiece to Obama husing help plan
Filed under Government Mortgage Financing Programs News News broke today that the talk of 4% interest rates for all have been shelved by the Obama administration and the focus of the pending foreclosure prevention plan will likely be a standardized loan modification program that applies to all struggling homeowners whether they are behind on payments or not. Most loan modifications plans until now only kicked in when homeowners fell months behind on their mortgage payments. Here are some excerpts from a recent Reuters story on the subject:
Comments (0) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 The buzz surrounding Obama’s mortgage relief plans growing
Filed under Government Mortgage Financing Programs News The Obama administration is still cooking up its mortgage relief plan and a whole lot of people are on pins and needles waiting to see what is unveiled in the next week or two. Here are some excerpts from a recent CNNmoney.com recent article on the subject:
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Thursday plans to meet with President Barack Obama’s economic team and other officials on efforts to stem foreclosures and thaw credit markets.
A notice the Treasury Department released Thursday morning said Geithner Thursday morning will attend a White House meeting with the economic team to discuss efforts to keep Americans in their homes.
The meeting comes as a growing number of federal officials are urging banks to hold off on foreclosures until the new administration announces its multi- billion-dollar plan to ease the pain in the housing markets. On Wednesday, bank executives with Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC) suggested they would be willing to halt foreclosures over the next few weeks as the Obama administration hashes out a plan. …
Additionally, Geithner will attend a meeting with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers to discuss the new financial rescue plan Geithner unveiled earlier this week. The plan could send $ 2 trillion into the U.S. financial system and includes efforts to remove soured mortgage-related assets from banks’ balance sheets and new plans to “stress test” banks aiming to receive new capital infusions from the government. See here for more on the banking rescue plan unveiled on Tuesday.
Comments (0) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 Home prices are expected to continue to decline into 2010
Filed under Government Mortgage Financing Programs News According to the folks over at HousingWire home prices are predicted to continue to drop over the next 12 twelve months.
If you still have equity in your home and have an interest rate at 6.5% or higher contact us now if you would like to improve your rate before you are upside down on your mortgage like millions of other Americans already have found themselves.
Comments (0) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 What about the 4% rates we have been hearing about?
Filed under Government Mortgage Financing Programs News There has been talk in the news recently about 4% interest rates on mortgages. The problem is that so far none of the plans that would lead to such rates have gained much traction in Washington. The Republicans were pushing to have the economic stimulus plan reduce interest rates for all to spur refinances and home purchases. The problem with that is that the Republicans don’t have much juice in Washington these days and the plans supported by the Democrats which is focused on other strategies.
Now it is possible that rates could be artificially compressed further in coming months, but there is no telling. The new Governor of the Fed, Elizabeth Duke, gave a speech recently and said that compressing rates by buying up mortgage backed securities is one of the ideas the Fed is still kicking around. Here are some excerpts from a recent post over at the WSJ blog:
While Congress and the Treasury debate numerous options, Ms. Duke largely steers clear of specific proposals.
Ms. Duke says the government also might consider reducing the interest rate for borrowers, through a subsidy or Treasury purchases of illiquid Ginnie Mae securities to which the borrowers’ interest rate is tied. The government also could purchase delinquent or at-risk mortgages in bulk and refinance them into the existing programs, she says.
The problem is that while we all wait to figure out what the Fed might do, interest rates are higher than they should be and banks are almost discouraging people to get loans now one fears that rates will drop and people will just refinance again in a couple of months. We think the Fed needs to tweet or get off these things. Teasing the market with “mights” is making things worse, not better.
Comments (0) Posted by G.R.A. Admin on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 « Previous Entries