Obama Got Discount on Home Loan

Washington Post ^ | June 2, 2008 | Joe Stephens

[Kleebo151]

Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois. This Story

The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.

Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month

[Blood of Tyrants]

But don’t you see? Liberal politicians DESERVE to get better than we peasants do?

“Four legs good! Two legs better!” (Animal Farm - George Orwell)

[Eroteme]

Yes, one paper. The Washington Post, a major newspaper in an original piece of investigative reporting that only just appeared today. You think all newspapers across the country break the same story simultaneously? And if they don’t, it’s some sort of concerted effort to “bury it”? Let the ink dry before declaring that media is “burying it.”

[SE Mom]

Here’s some insight from The Campaign Spot:

So, just to refresh…

Obama wants to buy a mansion, which the seller insists upon selling simultaneously with an adjacent piece of property that they also insist upon selling as a separate transaction. Obama can’t afford both, and turns to Tony Rezko, who is known to be under federal investigation at the time. Obama gets a mortgage below rates. I presume that by early 2005 Obama’s credit rating is good, even though in summer of 2000 he was having his credit cards rejected.

In 1993, he and Michelle had accumulated $110,000 for a down payment on their condo, but the Post article makes no reference to a down payment on the mansion. They presumably made some money from selling the condo, but again, no reference to the sale of that property.

He pays $300,000 below the asking price in the middle of the biggest housing boom in the nation’s history. Rezko’s wife purchases the adjacent lot for the full asking price. Then while Rezko is under federal investigation, Obama pays him $104,500 for a strip of land on the adjacent lot appraised to be worth $40,500.

07/02 08:29 AM

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/

[AmericanMade1776]

Obama's apt in DC is a rental, it caught on fire on Father's day in 2007. "The fire appeared to be on the third floor of a townhouse in northeast Washington, and was likely caused by an old fan that had malfunctioned" http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,283612,00.html His apt that caught on Fire

[kevkrom]

First Dodd and Conrad, now Obama? I see a pattern developing

Direct corruption aside, it may also be true that politicians are "safe" borrowers in that they are pretty much set for life financially based on the perks that Representatives and Senators get after they leave office. As such, lower risk can yield a lower rate.

That said, of course this is fishy, and totally consistent with Obama being noting more than a third-rate hack politician from the Chicago machine.

[tobyhill]

First, I don't believe there were “no points” to buy down the interest. To get anything under 6% would have probably been at least a half point.

Second, ***”Since 1990, Northern Trust employees have donated more than $739,000 to federal campaigns, including $71,000 to Obama,***
What the hell is this? They already gave him at least $108,000 discount on the loan, not counting the the points he should have bought.

[AmericanMade1776]

Obama rents on 6th st. NE on CapitolHill in DC

[The South Texan]

Just the commmon man running for President......

[Arrowhead1952]

###!

[ConservativeMan55]

All I’m saying is that I don’t think we’ll be seeing this on World News Tonight or any of those other broadcast nets.

Not that I watch them anyways lol.

[Poetgal26]

What makes him so special to get a discount???

Man, I would luv a discount on my home loan....

[pgyanke]

Change...

[griswold3]

Interesting take on ‘community activism’....

‘Climber Obama’....

http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/2008/02/obama-as-community-activist.html

[GraniteStateConservative]

this deal was set in stone before we ever heard of him. Hand picked chosen one.

This was in 2005. This was after he spoke at the convention and after Dreams from My Father was published and a year away from the publication of The Audacity of Hope (and he'd probably already signed the deal to write it by then) and after he'd won election to the Senate-- and officially begun his path to superstardom (I recall clearly in 2004 that most all pundits were predicting he'd run for the WH in 2012). This is a really stupid story, IMO. Betting on Obama in February of 2005 was a stone cold lead pipe lock. He had a lot of money in February of 2005 and was looking at piling up even more just in speaking fees in the future.

Jumbo loans are for amounts up to $650,000, but the Obamas' $1.32 million loan was so large that few comparables are available.

That sort of describes Obama, doesn't it? Radio guys like Dennis Miller and Rush and others thought it was ridiculous that he thought he could slay the Hildebeast, a total tilting at windmills endeavor-- that he was naive and stupid to try. There is no one comparable that could have done what he's done. The bank knew he was special, but they didn't realize he was the Kobe Bryant/LeBron James of politics. It's amazing, really. Trying to suggest this was a political sweetheart deal like Dodd's is idiotic. Dodd couldn't polish Obama's shoes. Dodd is a nobody. Obama got the kind of loan a superstar athlete or singer would get. I'm not surprised.

[cookcounty]

"Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month"

$300/month for 360 months....that's a $108,000 gift.

I also got a loan at about the same time, but not Jumbo...conforming with very high credit and great LTV, and got 5.75% 30-fixed.

[cookcounty]

""This is not the Barack Obama I knew ...."

LOL!!!

[dennisw]

Obama will decimate any American with decent money who doesn’t have loopholes and tax accountants like the rich

Strange ain’t it that George Bush has the eco house. Eco cooling too I believe, as much as possible. While AlGore is using so much TVA electricity his meter is spinning at warp speed

[Stentor]

‘Climber Obama’....

From your link,

"While some Black American residents nearly froze in apartments with no heat in the winter of 1997, Obama received a financial donation from Antoin Rezko, landlord of these buildings in the Englewood Black community in Chicago where Rezko supposedly couldn’t afford to pay the heating bills! (“Obama Surfaces in Rezko’s Federal Corruption Case,” Chicago Sun-Times, January 20, 2008). It’s also alleged that Obama worked for a firm that gave some forty-three million dollars to Rezmar Corporation, Rezko’s business. There’s more “community activism” of this nature." Check it out.[...]

Here's the link to the Sun Times article.

Obama surfaces in Rekzo's federal corruption case

[Fred]

Hillary (the terminator) Clinton is back at it, with her trojan horse firmly inside the BO campaign...

[End Times Sentinel]

The couple wanted to step up from their $415,000 condo. They chose a house with six bedrooms, four fireplaces, a four-car garage and 5 1/2 baths, including a double steam shower and a marble powder room. It had a wine cellar, a music room, a library, a solarium, beveled glass doors and a granite-floored kitchen.

It also came with Michelle Obama, which would be a deal breaker in my opinion.