'U.S. homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth got new help on Monday with the government's expansion of a refinancing program in a step that could help up to 1 million borrowers. The regulator of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac eased the terms of a program that helps so-called underwater borrowers who have made payments on time but have been unable to refinance.... ...The Federal Housing Finance Agency said it was scrapping a cap that prohibited borrowers whose mortgages exceeded 125 percent of their property's value from refinancing loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the government's Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). http://www.reuters.com/article/2011...20111025?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71
So they bumped HARP above 125%? What a shock...NOT. It was obvious this was probably going to happen when they put it at 125% back when. I have two things to say to these homeowners: 1) Let the buyer beware. 2) You took a chance when you bought the house that you might lose it. You screwed up and bought something that you later could not afford. So you should LOSE THE HOUSE. NOT get taxpayers who didn't screw up to bail your asses out. If the dumb ass politicians would just let the real estate market fall (like it should have done back in 2008/9) and reach it's 'natural' bottom - then this crap could be over and the real estate market could start to grow again. But this constant propping up a sick market with debt is doing NOTHING but delaying the inevitable and making it FAR worse for solid homeowners who just want the market to bottom out so the foundations of a solid recovery can be put in place.
Granny says Obama better get crackin' - peoples still losin' their homes left an' right... Obamas efforts to aid homeowners, boost housing market fall far short of goals October 23,`11 - It was a critical plan to jump-start the economy. President Obama pledged at the beginning of his term to boost the nations crippled housing market and help as many as 9 million homeowners avoid losing their homes to foreclosure.
Doesn't take into account that local assessment still claims properties are worth the inflated prices to keep those level of property taxes coming in. Do we know if it is that assessment that dictates the "true value" of the home or the real market value? Either way, people who have bought a home they could afford to live in, even at the inflated prices, shouldn't be worried about selling anyway. They got their home, and if the economy never turns around, the scarcity of land vs demand dictates the house will be genuinely worth what they paid at some point. Those who took out loans on bubble induced equity are retarded to begin with.
I don't mean that towards "special people". I mean that towards people born with a normal functioning brain who are so worried about today they are always broke and crying tomorrow. Our nation is filled with them, and they are the reason the rest of us constantly have to be on the lookout for financial sharks. The financial sharks will disappear when the financially ignorant disappear. Debt is a tool as dangerous as a gun, and must be used with the same amount of prejudice and caution.
