I think you can call me the latest casualty to the banking crisis.
Currently, like many homeowners these days, my home is no longer worth what I paid for it. Which, in the big picture, isn't that big of deal since I'm not going anywhere. However, the problem with the loss of equity is that I am not able to take advantage of the drop-bottom interest rates. Like most of us who don't make a whole lot of money, but pay our bills on time and do without a lot of "toys" the price decline has screwed us. Not only are we mortgaged with home purchased at the top of the market, but also can't take advantage of the lower than low interest rates.
Well, a couple of months ago Barack O'Boyfriend said that he wanted to help people like me. I emailed my friend, I'll call him "Republican Mortgage Guy" for this post, and asked him if it was true. He told me it remained to be seen if "my" democrat would make anything happen.
"My" democrat did come through. "Republican Mortgage Guy" called me while I was in Italy to tell me that Barack rolled out a program that would allow people just like me to refinance into a 30 year fixed loan in the 4% range (yah, that's right, 4%). There were a couple of stipulations one being that my current loan had to have been insured with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. "Republican Mortgage Guy" told me that it shouldn't be a problem since most loans are insured with the FMs. However, when he tried to look it up he couldn't find my loan. So I brought my loan paperwork to him to look into it further. The company who issued my loan told him that "all their loans were insured with the FMs" so I wasn't worried. Well I should have been. The company who insures all their loans with the FMs, didn't insure mine. So, Barack's big ol' fancy plan doesn't help me one bit.
I want to know why a company who regularly uses the FMs to insure their loans didn't with the loan I have. I bought my house around the same time that the banks were loaning money to anyone who applied with all sorts of crazy terms. Am I also a victim of their greed? Certainly not to the extent of those who have lost their homes, but I think so. I'm hoping "Republican Mortgage Guy" can dig up something else for me.
