President Obama announced the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan today.
Under the plan, many homeowners whose loan-to-value ratio was previously too high to refinance will now become eligible to refinance their homes at the current low rates. The plan will also reduce foreclosures and provide transitional help for those who are facing difficulty making their payments.
Read here for more details, Q&A and some housing example situations. Mortgage lenders will start accepting applications after more details of the program are announced on March 4th.
There seems to be a lot of thought put into the plan (e.g., not providing assistance to speculators or flippers). It's probably the most direct effort to stem the bleeding in housing markets we've seen since this whole thing started turning south.
Now we've got a stimulus and a housing plan. Still need to work on those zombie banks but definitely a take-charge start for Obama's first month at work…
That’s a good start, I hope there are more people out there who still believe that this country and there rest of the world can rise from the crisis.
We will recover. No doubt in my mind. It will just take time and strengthening of consumer confidence. Obama’s plan is definitely better than what we had in place just two months ago.
Wow, MD must have had a life changing event. He seems so much less angry these days.
Wow, what a disaster this plan is going to be for the future of real estate. Stop and think about the long-term repurcussions…
The real estate would have never tanked the way it did if not for being overpriced. The average historical appreciation rate was 4-5%, not 20-25% as we saw in 2003-2006. It is self correcting right now, and any “band-aid” government program is going to only extend the agony, and keep me, potential buyer, on the sidelines… Too bad.
Mik from AK, your point is exactly right. For some reason, when I make the same kind of points such as your’s, it makes me an “angry” person in the eyes of agents and marketers. Sounds to me that all the agents are “angry” now as they’re having a more difficult time making a living/taking advantage of consumers. They just don’t like it when people know real estate better than they know it. It is, after all, only a two-week course to obtain one’s Real Estate license, so I don’t know why I would expect more from those folks.
MD, I think people complain about you because you seem to combine your opinions about future market conditions with ad hominem accusations about agents’ motives and competence. That comes across as snarky.
Hank, I guess you shouldn’t take it so personally if you are doing the right thing in the first place.