thats not that amazing to you but the last time I made one was November 2009. And I am still in the house and not under a bridge.
That's a good thing and I am thankful. So much talk about all the problems with the banking and the FHA and every entity involved (HAMP, EHLP) just mind boggling.
But for me on the ground, it's a good thing. Like I said, I have a home and for the immediate (two years) I have assistance through a government program to supplement my payment.
I was out of work for a year and a half and I qualified for an assistance program that helps me make my payment, in full, to the bank each month for two years.
After that, it's up to me to figure it out.
And that's when it hit me that this is another bank bailout wrapped in homeowner bailout clothing.
Over the Orange Cloven Hoofprint
The Emergency Homeowner Loan Program I qualified for takes into consideration what I am presently making, which is substantially less than what I was making previously, but it's work and we all say yay, it's a job, and supplements my contribution and pays the bank the full mortgage payment.
So, the bank is getting paid, not only the back mortgage payments I owed from when I wasn't working, but, combined with my payment, the full payment they would have been entitled to under the original mortgage.
Never mind that when I qualified a good interest rate was 5% and I didn't have sterling credit (divorce can tarnish a fico) so I got my loan at 5.25% and that's what the bank is getting paid back.
Just like the interest rates never plummeted, or that a refi would shave at least a full point off; the deal just goes on and the bank gets paid in full.
I am not looking a gift horse in the mouth and once this all settles down, I fully plan to refinance and get it all lowered, but as a "keeper" of my tax dollars at work, I find it less than fiscally frugal that when the government agreed to bail out the homeowner, they didn't cut a deal and let the bank take some of the hit, but that's not how it was created and implemented. It was really a deal cut under the guise of homeowner saving (which it did) but behind the scenes, it bailed the bank out of foreclosing on a home in a dead market or taking a lower price. Essentially, the government paid paper value instead of actual value, that's something insurance companies won't even insure for anymore.
It really was a bank driven deal that got them caught up, saved them foreclosing, gave the government some political cover and kept me out of the street. It just seems like with a tiny bit of coordination, a deal of reduced debt, better interest rate could have been cut and everybody would have contributed to make us all winners.
Instead, I win, though I am under a huge debt obligation that if I sneeze wrong or a kid gets sick and I incur medical bills etc that hiccups my finances and need to make a late payment it's deal's off- out and pay up. The government pays the full back debt owed, no negotiated amount to even the hit and goes on the hook for the full payment (plus my part).
And it is such an elephant in the dark room with everybody having a different notion of what it looks like, the confusion and lack of coordination and communication is worthy of the Marx Brothers.
We shall see, how it all plays out; I have learned the ropes and I am just damn glad to get one more hugely stressful thing off my immediate plate.
Now, if I could just find a second job or other form of income to make it not quite so hand to mouth.
Hey, a guy can dream.
peace, y'all.