I am like most Americans, I pay my bills on time, my car payment, utilities and the mortgage. Despite the fact that since we bought our home the value has dropped from 180,000 to 162,000 so we now owe as much as the value, and no equity. Compared to some areas we have been lucky, I understand many homes in Southern Calif have dropped about 50% of their value, Florida the entire state has lost huge amounts of real estate value, and I understand the word "time shares" is a really nasty word there now.
I was poking around the White House website White House website and found this HARP
In his State of the Union address, President Obama laid out a Blueprint for an America Built to Last, calling for action to help responsible borrowers and support a housing market recovery. While the government cannot fix the housing market on its own, the President believes that responsible homeowners should not have to sit and wait for the market to hit bottom to get relief when there are measures at hand that can make a meaningful difference, including allowing these homeowners to save thousands of dollars by refinancing at today’s low interest rates. That’s why the President is putting forward a plan that uses the broad range of tools to help homeowners, supporting middle-class families and the economy.
Key Aspects of the President’s Plan
• Broad Based Refinancing to Help Responsible Borrowers Save an Average of $3,000 per Year: The President’s plan will provide borrowers who are current on their payments with an opportunity to refinance and take advantage of historically low interest rates, cutting through the red tape that prevents these borrowers from saving hundreds of dollars a month and thousands of dollars a year. This plan, which is paid for by a financial fee so that it does not add a dime to the deficit, will:
o Provide access to refinancing for all non-GSE borrowers who are current on their payments and meet a set of simple criteria.
o Streamline the refinancing process for all GSE borrowers who are current on their loans.
o Give borrowers the chance to rebuild equity through refinancing.
• Homeowner Bill of Rights: The President is putting forward a single set of standards to make sure borrowers and lenders play by the same rules, including:
o Access to a simple mortgage disclosure form, so borrowers understand the loans they are taking out.
o Full disclosure of fees and penalties.
o Guidelines to prevent conflicts of interest that end up hurting homeowners.
o Support to keep responsible families in their homes and out of foreclosure.
o Protection for families against inappropriate foreclosure, including right of appeal.
For our family this will save us more than 25% from our current payments, and we will be able to use this difference to either pay our electric bills, buy a new car, maybe even splurge and take a vacation.
With my medical issues I doubt I will live long enough to see my equity build back up to what it was in 2006, I have numerous medical problems that are service connected to my Army service and spent 3 months of the past year in ICU units dealing with Congestive Heart Failure, being evaluated for a heart transplant, getting a pacemaker installed and then I got lethargic and learned about this issue
The lungs and heart are irrevocably linked in their oxygen and CO2 transport functions. Functional impairment of the lungs often affects heart function, and functional impairment of the heart often affects lung function. In patients with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF), exertional dyspnea is a common symptom, and ventilatory effort is increased at a given exercise workload despite normal arterial blood gases.
My wife took me to the VA ER and they did not have a CPAP machine so they sent me to a local civilian hospital for treatment, a week in ICU and a lot of blood gas tests and many hours on a CPAP machine. Blood gas draws are painful.
I am thankful to President Obama for creating this HARP program that allows us to refinance our home and will reduce us from a 6.5 percent mortgage to a 4.25 percent mortgage and give us a payment that will allow my wife to stay in the home even in the event I pass away. Thats the problem with being disabled, insurance companies will not write mortgage insurance, and the VA will not allow a veteran to buy it, unless they meet very strict criteria, we think I now meet the criteria and we will be filing a claim to see if we are eleigible for the Special Adapted Housing Grant and is approved then they will allow us to "purchase" the mortgage insurance thru the VA, we will gladly pay for it, we just want to be able to buy it, like other people can.
People complain about government but this is a case where the President is making it work for us, and this was done by the White House he did it on his authority as we know Congress would not have allowed it, and Mitt Romney would not have done it, either make the payments of when it gets to bad lose it to foreclosure.
I like President Obama's vision for the United States, and not Mitt Romney and the republicans vision, I had enough of Bush and the Republican Congress visions from 2001-2009, we can't afford them.