Emergency Economic Stabilization Plan and HOPE for Homeowners:
What do these plans mean for you?
All this talk about the Bailout Plan and the 700 Billion Dollar plan has most people a bit confused, to put it lightly. What does this all mean? How will it be implemented?
On October 1, 2008 this plan was passed by Congress to help American families stay in their homes and to help stabilize the economy. On October 3, 2008 it was signed into law by President Bush.
So, what does this plan entail? Having not been able to easily obtain the details, I took it upon myself to go to the Library of Congress and read through all 45,000+ words of it to find the parts that are relevant to YOU – my friends, clients and fellow homeowners.
Here is what I found:
The Bill itself is technically referred to as Bill H.R. 1424. It is divided into three sections:
(A) Emergency Economic Stabilization,
(B) Energy Improvement & Extension Act of 2008 and
(C) Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief
I will provide a link to the entire document at the end of this entry, for now, I will note sections of interest as bullet points, and will provide descriptions of the ones that are very relevant.
Division (A) Emergency Economic Stabilization includes:
- TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program)
The Federal Government will allocate funds to purchase troubled assets – specifically, $250,000,000 dollars. If requested by the president, it can be increased to $350,000,000 and then if requested by the president again, it can be increased to $700,000,000. This last figure seemed to be a bone of contention, as there is a provision for disapproving any amount over $350,000,000.
- Assistance to Homeowners
Surprisingly, this section was rather vague BUT did lead to my researching the HOPE for Homeowners Act (more on this later). This provision includes residential loan modifications such as interest rate reductions, loan principal reductions and other similar modifications. This will be implemented no later than 60 days from enactment (end of Nov.)
- Consent to Reasonable Loan Modification Requests
Verbatim: “Upon any request arising under existing investment contracts, the Secretary shall consent, where appropriate, and considering net present value to the taxpayer, to reasonable requests for loss mitigation measures, including term extensions, rate reductions, principal write downs, increases in the proportion of loans within a trust or other structure allowed to be modified, or removal of other limitation on modifications.”
· Temporary Increase in Deposit and Share Insurance Coverage
Per this act, your money in a bank is FDIC insured up to $100,000 dollars. To increase confidence in banking, the Federal Government has enacted a temporary increase until December 31, 2009 insuring your funds up to $250,000.
- Amendments to the HOPE for Homeowners Plan
This section amended a few words and phrases in the HOPE legislation, but what is really important is the plan itself (In depth description after H.R. 1424 discussion)
Division (B) Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008
- Energy Credits for property energy efficiency
- Deductions for energy efficient commercial buildings
- Energy efficient appliance credit for appliances produced after 2007
Division (C) Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief
- State and local sales tax deductions
- Additional Standard deduction for real property taxes for non-itemizers
(This section is where you find the famous “pork barrel” spending on items such as rum, wooden arrows for children, wool research, film & television, tax penalty modifications & numerous other political pet projects)
Obviously, this is a largely condensed version of the Bill. I whittled it down to the applicable provisions for homeowners.
Click here for the Library of Congress Version as a pdf file: hr1424
Now, onto the HOPE for Homeowners Act:
Enacted October 1, 2008, this act will refinance mortgages for borrowers who cannot afford to make payments on their current mortgage.
To qualify, you must meet the following criteria:
- Be the owner-occupant (it must be your primary residence), and not own or have ownership interest in any other residential property
- Have made at least 6 payments on the mortgage and the mortgage must have been originated before January 1, 2008
- Not be able to pay your existing mortgage without help
- Have a monthly mortgage debt that is more than 31% of your gross monthly income as of March 2008
- Not have been convicted of fraud in the past 10 years and must not have falsified information to obtain your current mortgage
- Loan amount may not exceed $550,440
- New mortgage will be no more than 90% of the new appraised value including any financed Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium (UMIP)
- The UMIP is 3% and the Annual MIP is 1.5 %
- The holder of the existing mortgage liens must waive all pre-payment penalties and late payment fees
- The existing first mortgage must accept the proceeds of the HOPE for Homeowners loan as FULL SETTLEMENT of all outstanding indebtedness
- Any subordinate lender must release outstanding mortgage liens
- Standard FHA closing costs policy applies
- Borrower must agree to share with FHA both the equity created at the beginning of this new mortgage and any future appreciation in the value of the home.
- Borrower must not refinance for the first 5 years (except for emergency repairs)
- Minimum 50% equity and appreciation sharing with the Federal Government on a sliding scale from 100% after the first year to a minimum of 50% after 5 years.
According to HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) the HOPE program is to be coordinated through your current lender (or servicing agent if the lender has new ownership).
To view HUD’s news release, visit http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr08-150.cfm
THE CONGDON CONNECTION TEAM – EWM REALTORS
Jena & Richard Congdon, Broker Associates
Paula Barrera, Realtor
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