bobbyw24
10-24-2011, 11:20 AM
The HARP Mortgage Bailout
A hair of the dog that killed us.
A couple of weeks ago, President Obama asked his advisors to come up with ways he could bypass Congress to pursue his agenda. “We’re not going to wait for Congress. So my instruction to… all the advisers who are sitting around the table is, scour this report, identify all those areas in which we can act administratively without additional congressional authorization, and just get it done,” the President told his Jobs and Competitiveness Council.
It looks like one method of bypassing Congress will involve the Administration using executive fiat to mutate the Home Affordable Refinance Program, which was designed to avoid foreclosures by rearranging “underwater” mortgages. As reported by Fox News:
Seeking to breathe new life into a sagging economy, President Obama will attempt an executive branch rescue of homeowners trying to refinance underwater mortgages, with a new initiative that lets people with little or no equity get a better interest rate at a reduced cost.
The initiative, the first in a series of announcements expected this week by the president, applies to homeowners with federally guaranteed mortgages who are current on their payments.
The revamped Home Affordable Refinance Program, which aims to avert foreclosures, is expected "to encourage new, lower-cost loans" to more homeowners who are paying more than the value of their properties, a senior administration official said ahead of Obama's Monday announcement.
Fox goes on to explain that “The change is not a mass refinancing of everyone in America, but a targeted fix to open up the program to more people who are underwater.” Specifically, the Administration wants to relax the eligibility requirements for HARP refinancing, which currently include restrictions on how much the value of the old loan can exceed the current appraised value of the home. The current program caps mortgages eligible for refinance at 125% of property value.
Reuters reports on some other proposed HARP modifications:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47078
A hair of the dog that killed us.
A couple of weeks ago, President Obama asked his advisors to come up with ways he could bypass Congress to pursue his agenda. “We’re not going to wait for Congress. So my instruction to… all the advisers who are sitting around the table is, scour this report, identify all those areas in which we can act administratively without additional congressional authorization, and just get it done,” the President told his Jobs and Competitiveness Council.
It looks like one method of bypassing Congress will involve the Administration using executive fiat to mutate the Home Affordable Refinance Program, which was designed to avoid foreclosures by rearranging “underwater” mortgages. As reported by Fox News:
Seeking to breathe new life into a sagging economy, President Obama will attempt an executive branch rescue of homeowners trying to refinance underwater mortgages, with a new initiative that lets people with little or no equity get a better interest rate at a reduced cost.
The initiative, the first in a series of announcements expected this week by the president, applies to homeowners with federally guaranteed mortgages who are current on their payments.
The revamped Home Affordable Refinance Program, which aims to avert foreclosures, is expected "to encourage new, lower-cost loans" to more homeowners who are paying more than the value of their properties, a senior administration official said ahead of Obama's Monday announcement.
Fox goes on to explain that “The change is not a mass refinancing of everyone in America, but a targeted fix to open up the program to more people who are underwater.” Specifically, the Administration wants to relax the eligibility requirements for HARP refinancing, which currently include restrictions on how much the value of the old loan can exceed the current appraised value of the home. The current program caps mortgages eligible for refinance at 125% of property value.
Reuters reports on some other proposed HARP modifications:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47078