Posted on 03/09/2012 4:19:26 AM PST by IbJensen
CNSNews.com) – Wth no authorization from Congress, President Barack Obama has announced that his administration--through the Federal Housing Administration--will insure refinanced mortgages for 2 to 3 million borrowers without verifying their income or even if they hold a job, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Obama announced his latest mortgage program at a White House news conference on Tuesday.
Any American with a mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) endorsed on or before May 31, 2009 and who is current with their mortgage payments would qualify, according to HUD.
No additional underwriting, or examining the verification of income, employment status or creditworthiness, will be done.
“Basically that’s because they already have an FHA loan and that’s just refinancing the same loan,” HUD spokesman Lemar C. Wooley told CNSNews.com.
Wooley further explained in an e-mail, “Even if their circumstances have changed, they are still managing to be current on the original higher priced mortgage, so that’s the proof to the FHA that they can handle the lower payments.”
“The streamline refinance process is only available for FHA-insured mortgages that are performing – the borrower is paying the mortgage,” Wooley said. He added, “By not requiring verification of income and other underwriting requirements, FHA reduces the cost of the transaction, as well as the time it takes – all to the mutual advantage of the borrower, the lender and FHA.”
Underwriting is generally done for both initial mortgages and refinancing, said Reed Piano, managing director of the National Association of Mortgage Underwriters. He said the normal mortgage underwriting process checks “employment verification, income verification, analysis or thorough examination of a borrower’s creditworthiness based on a lender’s requirements, any federal or state requirements.”
When an institution does the underwriting for a mortgage, it is "validating the entire process. They are validating the appraisal, the title, the credit, income verification, pretty much everything from A-to-Z and they’re seeing if the file is good and meets the requirements,” Piano told CNSNews.com.
The White House estimates 2 million to 3 million FHA borrowers are eligible. “While it is always difficult to estimate participation in these programs, this will result in significant monthly savings for hundreds of thousands of families,” a White House news release said.
“Today we’re taking it a step further--we are cutting by more than half the refinancing fees that families pay for loans ensured by the Federal Housing Administration,” Obama said at the press conference on Tuesday. “That’s going to save the typical family in that situation an extra $1,000 a year, on top of the savings that they’d also receive from refinancing. That would make refinancing even more attractive to more families. It’s like another tax cut that will put more money in people’s pockets. We’re going to do this on our own. We don’t need congressional authorization to do it.”
Banks issuing loans to borrowers who could not afford them led to the housing crisis in 2008.
Asked if a lack of underwriting requirements for this refinance program could create similar problems, Piano, with the National Association of Mortgage Underwriters, said it was too early to know.
“There’s always a possibility that it could create problems. Lenders need to be always cautiously optimistic,” Piano said.
“It’s a little too new to know what the president’s plan is going to entail,” Piano said. “From an underwriter’s perspective, they’re kind of the last person in the process. They’re going to determine ultimately if the loan is going to get approved. As long as the underwriter is doing their job, that’s going to help in the process. But again, they’re following whatever regulations and requirements are already set forth. If requirements are low, one has to be reasonably cautiously optimistic that it doesn’t present problems in the future.”
The FHA fees will be cut to encourage more people to refinance while interests, now, are very low. The FHA currently charges an upfront mortgage insurance premium of 1 percent of the balance each year, which will be lowered to .01 percent, according to the White House. Further, there is an annual fee of 1.15 percent for each year of the refinancing, which will be cut to 0.55 percent.
HUD estimates the program will save the FHA-insured borrower about $3,000 per year -- ($1000 of which will come from the lower refinancing fees mentioned by President Obama) -- or $250 per month.
Meanwhile we have a severly screwed up banking system where the banks make little for processing and handling the mortgage and those who wish to save make nothing in interest. Either this blighted bozo must go or the nation is utterly destroyed!
The man has absolutely no shame.
If they are current, then they are handling the payments and really don’t need a refi...
Isn’t this kinda like what caused the housing collapse? His wealth redistribution moving full speed ahead.
He doesn’t need authorization from Congress. That’s part of the executive branch privilege. Congress makes laws and appropriates revenue. It’s not a power sharing proposition.
The President can work with or without the Congress. The Congress can give or not give the President money to spend.
I’m dubious when I see headlines like this. It’s lazy journalism. How about showing us why this is a bad idea rather than just screaming “Without Congressional Approval”.
I worked for a fortune 1000 company and saw white college educated dinks and diks (double income no kids, double income kids) lose homes and go bankrupt.
It just depends upon what region you live in.
It’s not because they were Latinos. It’s because the program favored and created a constituency of low income families with tenuous jobs.
If we had some Republicans in Congress with spines this alone would be grounds for impeachment. Obama is starting to rule by decree no different than Hugo Chavez. I fear that Mittens Romney will be a crash and burn GOP candidate just like McCain and Bob Dole and put Obama back in the White House. In four years Obama will be ruling as a dictator with the Republican eunuchs cowering in the halls of Congress. God Save our Republic.
So...just why do we bother to work, bother to pay our bills and bother to follow various laws?
I can't wait for the Election Year to be over, so we can get back to the standard handouts-to-redistribute-wealth, which is MUCH less costly to working people (the 50% bunch who pay taxes), so the parasites stop sucking more money out of our wallets, to buy their votes in November.
Reparations will NEVER stop.....as long as Progressives are in charge....OR RINO'S.
“Wth no authorization from Congress....”
The THEME of Obama’s time in Washington...
Apparently there are too many in this country that don’t realize just how serious their vote is. Voting is serious business.
Voting is what got Obama into the WH, and us the mess we are in.
Bypassing Congress is part of the party’s plan.
When the dimrats lost the house, the party just went on about their business. Didn’t raise hell, file lawsuits and scream voter fraud. Just kept quiet.
Now their plans are being carried out.
baraq is ruling, not governing. He has no intention of consulting the house or even his party’s senate.
If he gets a second term, he will have no restraints.
Valerie jarret did let us know that baraq was ready to rule from day one. And no one in his media raised an eyebrow about that statement.
Four years? I assume you typed that 4 years ago. Still waiting for the elections to be "postponed."
Free condoms, free student loans, free home mortgages, free green cars, free _ _ _ _.
I need to quit reading this stuff. My blood pressure goes through the roof so many times a day lately....
The banks have brought this upon themselves.
A few weeks ago, I attempted to refinance my mortgage at BOA - and I assure you that financial qualification is *not* an issue, we have more than enough income to qualify for twice the loan amount, excellent credit, and enough liquid assets to pay off the existing loan by writing a check if we wished.
1) First, I was told that “Our system is overloaded, and we will not be accepting new refinance applications for 3-6 months.”
2) Probably, for 80-90% of callers, that would have been that.
However, in my case I have the personal and business experience to know how to get around this sort of gate-keeping, and after escalating the call up two levels of supervision, I was assigned a loan office.
3) I can’t prove that the application process was designed to discourage applicants, but it might as well have been. Typical example:
BOA: “We need copies of all pages of you MM statement, including the blank pages.”
Me: “I do not keep the blank pages, but I’ll go to the bank, and get a reprint.”
BOA: “The reprint is in a different format than the statements you FAXed in. We will need to have a copy signed by someone at the bank, or something like that.”
Me: “Or something like *what*, exactly?”
BOA: “I’ll have to check that with underwriting. Perhaps you can go on-line and print a copy...”
(I go online. First, in order to get a copy, I have to change over to electronic statements (I prefer paper statements, on which I can make notations).
I then discover that the on line statements are not in the same format as the paper statements. And so on....)
In return for all this, BOA offers me a rate of 4.75%.
So I pick up the phone and call a local Mortgage Broker recommend by a source I trust.
No problem, he can do a HARP II loan (similar to the program we are discussing) at 4.00%, and with none of the bullshit I was getting from BOA.
Now, why would BOA be making it as difficult as possible for existing credit-worthy borrowers to refinance?
I may just be a cynic, but somehow I suspect that it may have something to do with reluctance to exchange a 5.6% loan for a 4.75% loan - let alone one a 4.00%!
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