Will Obama's new mortgage plan really reward responsibility?
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Barack Obama on the Primary by jurvetson Today President Obama announced a new $75 billion Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan to the world. It is touted as a plan that helps responsible homeowners who have not yet missed payments. However, will it really reward responsibility? Lets take a quick look at what is in the plan.
First, this plan will provide low cost refinancing for homeowners who have underwater mortgages. Since a lot of homes lost large chunks of equity in the past few years many people cannot refinance into lower rates right now. This plan basically allows people with conforming Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans to refinance at market rates. This actually is not very different from the existing Fannie Mae to Fannie Mae streamline loan that does not require new appraisals. The homeowners should be making ontime payments on their loans and this would just reduce their payments. This portion of the plan is supposed to help 4 to 5 million people who have mortgages guaranteed by one of the GSEs. Jumbo mortgage holders are out of luck.
The next portion of the plan is meant to stop struggling homeowners from going into foreclosure. Basically the government will give lenders incentives to modify loans so that a borrower's mortgage is no more than 38 percent of his or her income. Then the initiative would lower the payments down to 31 percent with more subsidies. This lowered rate would last for at least five years, and then be stepped up. Incentives to servicers include an up-front fee of $1000 for each successful eligible modification, and also up to $1000 each year for three years as long as the borrower is current. The borrower could also get $1000 per year for five years for staying current.
Another portion of the plan that encourages housing price stability is to discourage lenders from foreclosing on mortgages. Basically, the Treasury department will create an insurance fund of up to $10 billion to guarantee against home price decline. Basically the lenders will be receiving insurance payments on modified loans to guard against housing price drops.
Personally, I like the portion of the plan that lets responsible borrowers refinance into lower rates. I know several people who bought in the last few years and have no trouble paying their mortgages. However, they cannot refinance now because their home values have gone down 20% to 30% and their downpayment is gone. This will help them tremendously and cut their monthly payments by hundreds of dollars. The money they save could be spent on other things. It is unfortunate that it only applies to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, but I guess there is also comfort in the fact that the government cannot twist private investors' arms to accept low rates.
As to the second portion of the plan, I am not too sure how the servicer incentives will work out. In recent years mortgage servicers have been quite unscrupulous and rewarding them may not be such a good idea. I understand that many struggling homeowners are trying to do the right thing and keep their homes at all costs, but the reality is that it just may not be worth it to keep a loan that costs as much as 38% of a family's income. Considering that more than half of loan modifications failed last year, it seems like the servicers would come out the ultimate winners by collecting thousands of dollars in bonuses and then foreclosing on the homes.
More details about how to qualify for these refinances and modifications will come to light on March 4th. If you are eligible for the refinance and modifications, then you should get your ducks in order right now. Some documents you should have ready are paystubs and W-2s. You should also try to improve your credit score in case there is a lower bound on credit scores. I can see this plan helping many people reduce their mortgage payments, but many others may just end up being tied a bit longer to debt they cannot pay.
What do you think? Does this plan really reward responsible borrowers or does it stink of bank bailout? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!
Tagged: Personal Finance, Consumer Affairs, Real Estate and Housing, bailout, housing, mortgages, obama
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Thanks for this analysis- I hadn't read anything quite so clear yet. I really hope it works- I'm not a homeowner myself, but some of my friends and family have been quite affected.
...it seems to me to do the opposite.
Since I did not get in over my head with house payments, I will be charged somehow by the gov't (pay for it via higher taxes or somehow) to fix the problems caused by other people's greed and lazyness (both the lenders and debtors).
F### the Feds. Thats how I feel about these rip-off plans. All of them, regardless of their pretty words, are just f@@@ing thieves.
Who are you to judge others- Why do you call it greed? This just kinda happened....if you crashed your car and were unable to work from today on......could you pay your perfect mortgage payment SMARTY? Suck on that~
I am not a fan of the giving $1000 a year for three years to those people in this predicament who do then start paying their mortgage on time.
That is completely unfair to those who have been paying their mortgage on time for years and still continue to do.
No, this in no way rewards those of us who have been responsible in not only making our payments on time but who also bought home that was inline with our salaries. This will most likely help the bus driver recently shown on CNN who is losing her $800,000 home that she suddenly realized she can't afford on her $50,000/year salary. I think the people who are being bailed out should be required to take some kind of Personal Finance 101 course.
i agree with the previous post.
we are a generation of idiots. if a banker told our fathers that they would give them a 500,000 loan when he was only making 50,000 he would have pushed back and said no way.
we cant blame the banks or lenders...just ourselves.
i am someone who bought with in my means and feel that as usual i am getting the short end of the stick for acting responsible.
why does someone get rewarded for buying incorrectly, financing incorrectly, living beyond their means and acting ignorant to the ongoings of the world economy.
i will bet that half of the people in trouble have brand new cars, maxed out credit cards, the highest cellphone plans and newest iphones and tech gadgets.
why shouldnt a person who pays their mortgage on time get a tax credit.
is anyone else going to say this isnt fair.
Reward the responsible and more people will strive to be responsible. Reward ignorance and more people will give up.
Of course, I'll need to carefully read the whole thing, but for the most part, when the government starts moving money around from one place to another, trouble almost always results. I personally could benefit, since our home's value has bottomed out since our purchase a mere 3 years ago, while our interest rate has not. We have been unemployed for 6 months and have not missed a payment. We're doing all we can to keep up. But I'm not convinced we would accept this "help" if it were offered. I don't want my problems to become the problems of our society at large, nor put a debt load on my grandchildren.
Yeah, our country is in tough times. There've been tougher, and it might get worse. I don't think the actions that are being taken now are the right way to handle it at all.
I'm wondering about the morality of taking the loan modification when we don't really "need" it, too. I think we will qualify - I lost my job, and while husband is still employed, he's at a 10% salary cut. When we bought the house 6 years ago, we were at 26% debt ratio. Now, it's at 52%. And yet...we have savings, from the good years. We live frugally, have no other debt. I probably could get another job if I tried. We still have equity in our home, and could sell if we had to, and move to a lower cost of living area.
So, do I "deserve" the help of a lower interest rate? Not sure. But, at the same time your comment "I don't want my problems to become the problems of our society at large, nor put a debt load on my grandchildren" - made me wonder if you are intending on collecting social security, medicare, etc. Certainly these entitlements are putting a huge strain on our children, too, but I don't see too many people sending them back to the government with a "no thanks".
IIRC it still has some rules so we are not rewriting loans that should have never been written in the first place such as the low income worker buying a McCastle. There still has to be some basis of affordability. They are not going to drive down a $800,000 mortgage to a $80,000 mortgage.
I think the found a good middle ground. You also have to remember that banks still have the option to cooperate in these mortgage rewrites outside of bankruptcy court ones. So they can refuse to modify a stupid mortgage that should never have happened.
I think the big challenge will be finding the true owner of some of these really sketchy mortgages since they were more of the ones that were cut up and resold.
I'm not a fan of this plan.
Our system, flawed as it may be, rewards good decisions and punishes poor ones. That's the secret of our success.
When you "tweak" the system in such a drastic way, you destroy it.
I chose NOT to purchase a larger house. I chose to live within my means. I chose to avoid high levels of debt.
Now my prudence will be punished as the government takes my money and gives it to people who chose to live large.
It is utterly absurd to call this plan "rewarding responsibility".
I have owned my home for almost 10 years now. My mortgage has gone up while my pay has gone down. How dare you people try and say that just because I have a hard time paying my bills now, that I'm "living beyond my means!" I was ALWAYS on time with my payments. And now slowly I'm falling behind. I think the second part of the plan sounds great as long as the baks don't collect the bonuses and foreclose anyways. Hats off to those who HAVE been able to pay their bills on time. I have 2 growing children and the price of food isn't pretty. There are more reasons that It costs more to live now than I must be "living beyond my means!" I work as many jobs as I can so that I don't loose my house. I don't call that being irresponsible! Times are hard for everyone right now and I think everyone deserves a piece of the american dream.
Even if you're paying your bills on time, and aren't underwater, this benefits you--it keeps your neighbors from being forclosed upon, thus driving down home value in your neighborhood, keeping houses occupied, and preventing suburban decay.
You can be a perfect model of economic responsibility, but if three houses on your street are forclosed and empty, when vandals and vagrants move in, you are still screwed. It is in your best interest to keep your neighbors solvent.
My bank wanted me to buy above my means. I didn't. My bank wanted me to take an adjustable rate mortgage. I didn't. I live in a very expensive housing market (SF Bay Area) and although I desperately wanted to stop renting I put by house hunt on hold for a year when I couldn't find a house in the price range that I was comfortable paying. A year later prices came down a little and I found a house that I both liked and which I was comfortable paying for, and my mortgage is 28% of my income. Now I get no incentives and rewards because I did the research on mortgages and loans in advance and I was responsible when I bought my house. It isn't a 20 room house.....it isn't on a big piece of land....I bought what I was comfortable paying for, with a fixed rate loan that had a decent (at the time) APR. Now I somewhat wish that I was irresponsible so that I could get free money and refinancing too. If people were too lazy to research what they were getting in to or too greedy and bought a house that they could actually afford in the long run, then they shouldn't expect the government to bail them out for their own mistakes.
Quote Laura "You can be a perfect model of economic responsibility, but if three houses on your street are forclosed and empty, when vandals and vagrants move in, you are still screwed. It is in your best interest to keep your neighbors solvent."
Ah BS. Rewarding bad behavior will not make anyone change their ways, thus in a few months the whole cycle repeats (e.g. Car companies begging for more money because they are not forced to make hard choices). So after some period of time and lots more wasted money, the deadbeats are either kicked out or given another loan.
A loan that people who made good decisions have to pay for in one way or another.
Why should I pay my mortgage if I can get my neighbors to pay large chunks of it for me? All I have to do is pretend to want to pay (and send a check every few months) while threating to have some 'vandals and vagrants' if the gov't does not keep forcing other to pay for me.
Bah, it is just extortion or a variation of, 'Thats a nice house you have there Mister, be a shame if something happened to it....' unless you pay them their protection fee.
I want to live next to you so you can bail me out when I do something irresponsible. Why do you take responsibility for the welfare of your entire neighborhood when you buy a house? Sure, it is in your best interest that your neighborhood remain nice, but at what price?
The responsible and honest always pay for the criminal behavior of others. Yes, being responsible does not get you anywhere these days. It's a matter of morals and integrity. Fortunately (or unfortunately) some of us will always do the right thing even as our taxes, insurance, and the cost of food and merchandise rise because others do not have the same moral fotitude as you. As a single mother of three children, I lived in apartments while saving and making sure to keep a "good" credit rating so I could purchase a home within my means for myself and three children in a safe neighborhood with top-rated schools. I too was given the opportunity to take advantage of non-conventional loans. However, I bought a reasonably-priced home, paid 10% down (avoiding PMI), and obtained a qualifying 30-Year Fixed mortgage. My solution... get rid of compounded interest. I pay $200 a month towards the principal of my loan and $1155 a month in interest!
If the government would modify the structure of the mortgage loan, I'd be paying $1155 towards my home and $200 to the greedy bankers. My reward would be a paid- off home in 10 years! That's how a "responsible" homeowner should be rewarded.
An 800,000 mortgage is a jumbo mortgage. People with this kind of mortgage will not be affected by this plan. If I am not mistaken a jumbo mortgage is anything over $420,000.
I'm still not sure how this will help people out in say a state like California where property values are higher and unemployment is as well. A dual income household where both members got the axe would be looking at recieving $3600 a month in unemployment. A third of that would mean that the max house they could afford would be around $250,000.
Still I guess the plan may be better than nothing. Something needed to be done about housing.
I love the comment "F### the Feds. Thats how I feel about these rip-off plans. All of them, regardless of their pretty words, are just f@@@ing thieves..."
Do you have any realization of the impact of those underwater in their mortgages, those being thrown into unemployment, etc.. would/will have on your world? It's a snowball that rolls downhill and will hit you along the way, no matter how hard you have worked to make yourself prepared.
In the end all everything we have is impermanent, it really is only with us for a limited time, like we are (we do have a finite life). We might as well do our best to try and help those out around us, though it may seem to hurt us initially, in the end we all win and we are all better off for it. Even though it may have been of their own volition this does not mean that we cannot or do not help those around us.
Don't be so closed minded, the world can only become a better place if we help those around us.
I'm not an economist. I don't know the right answer.
I just know it stinks. My house is worth about $150k less than I paid for it. I've got a jumbo loan. They raised the limit on a "conforming" loan in CA, so I could refinance to a conforming loan even though it's a high balance. But I can't because I no longer have 20% down (despite putting 20% down and paying another 10% of the principal over the last 4.5 years).
But we bought a small house in a high cost area, and we bought what we could afford. Does it totally suck? Sure. We don't get the benefit from this bill, we'll be paying for it because of higher taxes, my property taxes are still higher than the home value states they should be, and of course, we make too much money to get any kind of stimulus check. Makes me wonder sometimes why I scrimp to keep my weekly grocery budget to $60 for my family when other people give my money away anyway, ya know?
Hey Marcia, from what I read maybe you can refinance according to the first portion of the plan. They are allowing the loan to be more than 100% of the value of the home. I know how you feel, though. Tiny bungalows here in San Mateo are still half a million dollars or more, and making what seems like a lot of money doesn't end up to be very much after paying all the taxes.
I really hate the fact that taxpayers are going to pay for all of these servicer/lender bonuses.
I think maybe that money headed to refinancing could be better spent by giving the individual states more money for the unemployment checks. The proposed added amount currently onthe books for Florida is only $25 a week. A little more and maybe people who started out responsible to begin with but got hit with a bad bit of luck jobwise could afford to stay in their homes until the job market loosens up a bit. As for the greedy or stupid ones who got in over their heads? It's time for thinning of the herd.
President Obama was careful to exclude certain classes of homeowners from the mortgage bailout, but he didn't go far enough.
What about those people who got a mortgage on non-fraudulent terms but then used home equity loans as a piggybank and now owe more on those houses than their values will support for the foreseeable future? They ought to be excluded -- but they're not.
What is the difference between the writedown on home principal values which will have to occur to keep borrowers' mortgage payments below 38% -- and foreclosure (except that the proposed plan keeps the irresponsible in those houses while foreclosure at least gives someone responsible a chance)?
The goal is worthwhile, but it does too much to keep whole the irresponsible, and it punishes those who live within their means.
All three facets of this crazy rescue plan essentially force responsible borrowers to subsidize those who chose to buy more house than they could comfortably afford.
Nobody is entitled to any of these rescue options! The irresponsible need to suck it up and take their medicine.
I expound on how this rescue plan completely discourages fiscal responsibility and makes suckers out of those of us who pride ourselves on living within our means at:
http://lenpenzo.com/blog/id518-im-just-askin-why-bother-being-fiscally-r...
There's no time for accountability. We're on the crest of a massive downward spiral. This is just one more plan to throw around money we don't have. Surprisingly, that's not a negative comment. It's obvious no one knows what actions are necessary. They bailed out of Bear Stearns. That didn't look good so they let Lehman fail. A catastrophe. AIG gets $150 billion (responsibility?). Congress approved $700 billion TARP to buy up toxic assets but then it was handed out without strings. Obviously that wasn't rewarding responsibility. The banks were expected to start lending. Nope. And now there's more talk about buying toxic assets.
It's a mess and we will continue bailouts, without regard to responsibility. Autos, States and Cities, Insurance, Airlines, on and on. Taxpayer money flying everywhere without consideration for merit of the recipient. We will probably hand GM more than their market value. We could just buy all the stock at $2/sh.
At this point I'm pleased to see some help for the little guy. Maybe not for the speculator or the flipper. But someone trying to keep his home is different. Maybe they were suckered into overspending but they didn't have a chance against the "industry experts" who were basically gaming the system. By some measures over half the financed properties in the country are under water. If we don't turn this around, and soon, we will all lose.
People have to understand that not everyone who is now in deep doo doo was irresponsible. In Michigan the unemployment rate is 10%, California has a 9% unemployment rate. Some of these people are just guilty of believing that they would continue to have a job.
I agree that it sucks that the plan couldn't weed out the ones who were fiscally irresponsible but I don't think it's right to let people who got laid off through no fault of their own get tossed out on the streets while waiting for the economy to recover.
I'm old fashioned and believe that a contract is a contract is a contract... and that it takes two willing parties to enter into a contract. If the terms of the contract cannot be met, then both parties should feel the pain so they are wiser next time. Certainly, the poor, the ignorant, and the greedy were preyed upon by some unscrupulous lenders, but why should the American taxpayer subsidize their efforts to possess more house than their income can afford? The sooner we get through this housing pain, the sooner we can begin the recovery. Government efforts like this will only prolong the pain and the economic downturn.
The word work itself needs to be analyzed. I'm excited about the money he's earmarked for our rail transportation system. That could be very exciting for the future of fast rail in the US. The rest, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
This plan is doomed to failure for two reasons. First, as for the unemployed, there is nothing the plan can do for them because they cannot afford to re-pay any loan. No lender will re-work a loan for someone with no job. Second, the Comptroller of the Currency - which tracks mortgage default rates - confirms that 58% of homeowners who had their loans modified in 2008 RE-DEFAULTED within 8 months. No one is talking about that statistic because it drives a stake right through the heart of this plan.
I think if you are in a fine situation, paying your mortgage as you have been for years, and everything's fine, then you should ignore all this stuff, and just continue on with your bad selves!!
That's what I think!
If it's NOT BROKE, don't FIX IT!!!
We're doing fine so far. Living like we always have. Hopefully we'll stay this way....but until then, I'm not messing with my credit, or my mortgage or anything. Too much weird stuff is going on now.
My mortgage company called me DAILY a few months ago, until I finally spoke to someone and told them to stop calling.
They wanted us to lower our payments if we needed to.
We didn't.
Good luck to everyone! We all need it.
okay, so lets do nothing. there were no oversights in place, obviously, when these lenders were giving these BS loans so lets leave everything as is. And no, I don't want to hear any of you yelling for government intervention when your house is worth squat because of all the vacant foreclosed houses in your neighborhood or when you or hubby lose your job. none of you even took one moment to think maybe, just maybe it does help someone who acted responsibly but saw their income diminish considerably, i.e., layoff. you all must lead a charmed life, whatever income you have will never be affected, ever and no sudden illness will never befall a member of your fam. boy, it must be nice to be all of you. Me, I'm just one of those "loser" homeowners, that low and behold, got let go from their well paying job only to not be able to find comparable work and silly me. So working the 2 partimers that pays only 40% of my previous salary has put me in a very daunting position. Loser. Ah, yes but I live in the real world. I will be glad when that real world knocks on a couple of your doors.
Just for all you out there who think that only the over spenders and losers in the world need this refinance plan of Obama's. I was a tenured teacher who lost my job. I only bought small house that I could clearly afford. I put away a six month emergency fund and only had this house and my student loans.
Little did I know that my loyalty to a school district would cause me to get screwed over and lose my job. Corruption to the max. Now I am on unemployment and can't find a full time job...I will take any job that pays. So far, its been odd temp jobs...but I'm not complaining...just grateful for the work. However, I doubt if I will qualify for the obama plan with mortgage reduction due to the fact that I only have 6 months left of unemployment left. I am taking classes to get into a cheaper paying profession, but I will be happy to have a real job again. I WISH THAT THE LOAN MODIFICATION PLAN INCLUDED PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO WILL WORK AT ANY JOB TO PAY MY MORTGAGE. i HAVE NEVER BEEN LATE OR MISSED AN PAYMENT TO DATE!
I am so mad that I am going to be footing the bill for others failure to plan.
I don't know what people were thinking when they bought these huge houses! Did they really think that they could afford them? Unfortunately we are rewarding the bad financial decisions of others by bailing them out and then giving them 1000 bucks if they manage to pay their bills on time.
In all the years I have had my home, I have NEVER been late paying the mortgage. Yes there were times when we ate Ramen for weeks, sold stuff on Ebay and had garage sales, but we paid our bills!
Where is my reward?
While I agree with your sentiment about the bribes for the mortgage lenders and loan modifiers, look at it this way: these once-great jobs are now lousy jobs. Most of these yahoos who are still employed are burning through their profits. These people need work. If you didn't bribe them, they wouldn't do the work. This is partly a jobs program of sorts.
It seems like what will happen is, if the refinance and cram down are applied, the lenders will get back their principal, but lose the profit (and then some), due to the payment schedule being drawn out so long.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Banks will potentially have all these assets that pay a low interest rate for a long, long time. Foreclosures, which are just losses, become assets-of a sort.
That's stability.
That bogeyman about the foreclosed houses in the hood are only true in working-class areas, and yuppie areas, where the old rentals were sold to sub-prime borrowers. In stable neighborhoods, so few houses were sold that there won't be much of an issue.
Also, people who get these cram downs will tend to stay during the duration of this depression. If they walk away from the loan, they will ruin their credit and likely spend more money on a rental.
I wish this site would get back to 1001 pumpkin recipes and how to make Christmas toys out of newspaper, chewing gum and duct tape instead of arguing the political differences that have torn this country apart for the past 50 years.
Wake-up you brother's keepers. The "everybody for their damn selfers" have won. Let the suffering begin (or continue as it has for millenium).
Life always brings you the experiences necessary to instill some compassion.
I have a feeling, in the end, this downturn will leave no uncompassionate soul behind.
Just be patient.
But please, in the meantime, doesn't someone just have a nifty "gardening in 2 square feet" tip?
There's simply no way to prop up peak bubble prices in the most overheated markets.
As much as we can sympathize, those of you who paid $475,000 for a home when comps on your street are now selling for $325,000 or less likely will not get any money back out of the house.
Regardless of how much money the government throws around.
If your income has dropped to or by 40% of previous levels it is now time to have a yard sale and look for a smaller, cheaper rental.
Rather than expect you will be able, somehow, to hang on to the house.
I still see on TV people on a single disability income hoping they will somehow be able to keep their 4-bedroom house.
I guess there's something to be said about us "lower middle class" people, eh?
We worked hard, cheered when we got accepted for a mortgage, and continued working hard to PAY our mortgage every month.
How did we do it?
We bought a house we KNEW we could afford!
A-HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But you snooty, snobby people, in your track suits and gleaming white sneakers, with your perfect, do no wrong darlings at the playground, in their Children's Place clothes and $70 sneakers that will fit them for a month, till you buy them another expensive pair (while MY kids have most of the year to grow INTO their sneakers, just so I won't have to buy them a new pair for the whole school year!)...looking down at me because my kid's sneakers are a bit tattered and (gasp) WORN LOOKING, and who think they are so much better than me because they have nice things.....all you snooty snobby people...HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW???????????????????
I am paying my mortgage. Still.
I am living in a house that I'm being crowded out of, but that I can afford. Actually, I can afford MORE than this house....but I'm making a smart decision, and NOT buying up, because, well...I'm SMART!!!! And REALISTIC!!!! And I'm not SNOOTY!!!!!
And THINGS do not make me who I am!
But here....let me work as hard as I can, so I can pay for YOU to keep your house. Because YOU deserve it. I don't.
YOU work hard, ya know...shopping at Children's Place and Gap Kids, and all that horror. (I know the horror well, because I too, shop there....in that little forgotten rack in the back, that says "CLEARANCE- $4.99 and under".
Why don't you put a cup out in front of your spot at the playground, so all us working people can drop whatever spare money we have with us, into it for you?
Because it's a REALLY WORTHY CAUSE.
Pshhhhhh.
As I've said before...the people who do NOT need it, always get the help. As I sit and "suffer" in my row house, living from check to check (thinking it's a better effing day if we can put $100 into savings!) raising my OWN kids (as opposed to having someone do it FOR me.)
Yes. I'm that person who caused a stir a while ago, about how backwards America is, and welfare and all that...
Here we are again. Helping people who do NOT need it.
What would happen to all these "yuppies" (remember that term?) if they lost their fancy houses??
They might have to buy a ROW HOME!!!!! OH THE HORROR!!!!!!!!!!
Can you IMAGINE what their "friends" would say?? I bet you, they'd NOT be their friends anymore!! I've seen it happen first hand. My husband's friend used to be rich, having picnics with expensive crawfish flown in from the south, people in clean starched collared shirts everywhere, awkwardly trying to have fun, as I watched and smirked in the corner, and then...he lost his business. It went down the drain.
And guess what?
ALL his fancy friends were gone. Not a single one left. Except us. And then my husband got him a job at his work!
And he still works there. Slaving away, being "one of us".
And we still like him the same. And we're all he has left.
So much for thinking that since we borrowed money from him at times in the past, that was the only reason we hung out with him...cause he was rich.
Nope. I think he got the clue, now!
Just goes to show who the actual GOOD people are, eh?
Just watch Titanic, with Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and see how it STILL IS today.
Well, gotta go work to pay for the rich people's houses now. And the "poor" welfare people's acrylic nails.
Cause that's how I roll.
Later!
I think it's a great plan. It's not just helping out the bogus sub prime mortgages that were written. It will help alot of people lower there mortgage payments. If you had pay cuts, or lost your job, or even your hrs cut at work. It will be a good thing. Start thinking positive, he is a caring classy President, Who want's to help the middle class, and the unfortunate. Wake up people,he came into this mess.At least he is doing something about it. We had nothing but 8 years of taking care of the rich people. It's about time, we have a president who cares about the economy.
Let's do something responsibile. Let's vote to have ACORN and Obama who supported ACORN and the deregulation of Freedy and Fanny pay for the people these outfits strong armed others into giving loans to just beause they were minorities. That makes a hell of a lot more sense then asking ME who has never missed a house payment dispite tough financial times, to help keep them in a home they never qualified to be in.
This is Obama's idea of "spreading the wealth around." Let the minorities (whoever that is these days) and the poor and the underqualified do what they damm well want and we'll invent social programs to catch them when they fall.
Well we are well on our way to Obama's dream of spreading the wealth around, take from the responsibile and give to the irresponsible.
Oh and I think its a great plan - Obama did not "come into this" he campaigned for it, bought it and wanted it. We hardly plucked Obama off the streets and assigned this job to him, remember how badly he campaigned for it. Clinton deregulated Wall Street (Democrat.) Barney Frank (Democrat) and those like him, including Obama, supported these subprime loans for the disadvantaged or whatever the hell they were calling people with no SS number, no job, no means of paying back a house loan under the umbrella of not "discriminating. What a joke.
Obama was as much if not more a part of creating this mess then people want to hear. What a joke, he inherited this? He WANTED it. And when the truth becomes clear, his intent was and always will be to take American into Socialism and he is on a fast tract toward that end. He's moving so fast toward socialism or worse, only the 40% of the people who pay absolutely no federal income tax will ultimately benefit. Oh and yeah, the illegals he loves so much.
Even though letting the whole economy crash and burn by putting an immediate stop to bailouts and mortgage refi plans seems like an unfeeling thing to do, I think this would be the better option. It's like pulling off a bandage--better to do it quickly and painfully and get over it than to do it slowly in order to minimize the pain. Usually the pain is the same, it is just prolonged when you don't do it quickly. If someone can afford a house, they can pay the bill, if they can't, they are only prolonging their agony. Better to lose the house, save up some money, and try again with a house that is more affordable.
I am disappointed in the mortgage plan, as I understand it. We have a great loan and have never been delinquent. But, in the last two years, we have had some major money expenses. All of them were surprizes. A 0bout with cancer and all its bills, even with great insurance, and a situation with our daughter that required much moolah. So, we have scrimpt and worked hard to make the house payments, but have so many bill collectors for our medical bills and such, that we hardly answer any phone calls. This bill doesn't seem to consider any other types of hardships caused by mortgage payments. And, gives no credit to the people who made the mortgage payments.
We probably would have been better off not paying the mortgage in the long run, because we are still in the same bad way with our bills as we ever were. And yet we don't qualify for any help.
(I was/am such a strong Obama supporter - this makes me sad.)
after reading some of the comments I to do not think that it is fair for the responsiable people that would like to take advantage of the rates to not be able to because of the equity has tanked. we live in a neighborhood to where when we bought our home it appraised for 270,000 when we bought it in 2007 over the amount we purchased it for at 265,000 and now it appraises for 230,000.00. we called countrywide to see if we could refinance, with the good credit, but not the equity because we did not have it anymore, they told us no because we were never late on a payment nor have we ever missed a payment. we were told the only way that we could get a good rate without the equity would be to put 20% down or just miss some payments( I could not believe it) I am glad that Obama plan will help other people because I am about helping people, but I just do not think that it is fair for us and the ones who want to take advantage of the great rates as well, I am a christian and I believe that God,Jesus have a great plan for us and for the people who are in situations like ours, it could and can be a lot worse we could be and still be one of the families living in tents. So Stay Blessed And May God Continue To Bless You All!
To whom can help
I have been a target of countrywide, inabilities and practices of bad business practices,
We had a 30 year note with Chase and never late,
Now with Countrywide and was promised a refinance on a 15 years note to 30 year note with there new Modification loan program this started in Feb 2009, and we call every month several time to ask about it and was told everything was Ok and will hear something shortly.
That was in March, Lisa James
We heard something alright on April15 a notice to Foreclosure, and need to come up with 2 months payment and the Mays payment also
We call several times and talked to 6 people with no help just Phone tags
So we when to the Locale office and the Person we first talked to (Jason Guinther) was there we told him the story and the he call countrywide, after talking to there office for 30mins, he said they were never going to notified us that we don’t qualify for the program or even why,
The inability for them to notified us doesn’t constitute an hardship for us,
I thing they encourages there people in this tactics,
Can anyone help us and advise a place to call anything
Vwf4506@insightbb.com
I only have till May the 8 according to the letter
Thanks very much in this very important matter
Google NACA
Wow...totally shocked at the high and mighty attitude from previous posters. We got in this predicament because we could afford the payments. But then gas skyrocketed and increased my cost to drive to school and drive my kids to school, to drive to the store. The cost of fuel then drove prices of food up, along with nearly anything else that has to be shipped somewhere, and also drove up heating and cooling costs. Who knew that the value of property would drop RIGHT AFTER we secured the property?!?! NEVER would have forecast that!!! We only got behind because of the market! Boy, were we looking for a handout and boy, is this lazy family deserving of losing their home because all we ever wanted was to rip off the public! All we ever wanted was to pay for this house, but never foresaw the inflation, the market crashing and my husband's job of 5 yrs dissipate. Were we ever ignorant! (sarcasm included!)