Huckleberries Online

Obama Unveils Mortgage Relief Plan

Posted by DFO

Feb. 19, 2009 8:20 a.m. • 13 comments

Item: Obama unveils mortgage relief plan to good media reviews/U.S. News & World Report

More Info: To extensive and largely favorable media coverage, President Obama yesterday outlined his housing relief plan at a high school in Mesa, Arizona. The story led all three network newscasts last night, and is featured on the front pages of newspapers across the country. The AP calls the plan “a $75 billion lifeline to millions of Americans on the brink of foreclosure.” The CBS Evening News said Obama “is throwing a lifeline to millions of homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages or at risk of outright foreclosure.” NBC Nightly News reported, “The basic goal of the plan is to help homeowners who owe more than their house is worth, need to refinance, but can’t get a new loan.”

Question: Do you consider this “75 billion lifeline to millions of Americans on the brink of foreclosure” to be a good thing?

13 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

moscow_minidoka on February 19 at 8:34 a.m.
Only if it provides opportunities for first-time homebuyers who have been out of luck since the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae debacle.
Me on February 19 at 8:55 a.m.
Moscow_minidoka - The tax loan, credit, whatever it is called is already in place where anyone purchasing their first house between July 2008 and July 2009 receive $7500 back with their refund. It has to be repaid I think starting in 2010 or 2011 at $500 a year through the tax filing process. I had heard that part of the stimulus package had something in it that it would NOT have to be repaid, but I don’t know if that made it through?

People who bought their first house the second 1/2 of 2008 got a very nice refund if they captured this credit.
moscow_minidoka on February 19 at 9:11 a.m.
Well, that’s nice for people who can buy a house before July, I suppose. I’m not one of those people.
Escapee on February 19 at 1:09 p.m.
Well, it’s something. President Obama was right when he said it was gonna take a long time to clean up the debris left by the Bush administration. This is a case in point.
JIMMYMAC on February 19 at 4:13 p.m.
Me,
Tax credit has been extended until the end of the year. It is no longer a loan as it was originally set out to be. It is now a true $8K tax credit that does not have to be paid back at all.

Moscow Minidoka,
There are opportunities for first time homebuyers, it’s called FHA and has been available before, during and througout the FRE/FNM debacle. You have to have 3.5% down payment, but I think it’s obvious that someone needs to have some skin in the game. USDA/RD allows for 100% financing but has geographical limitations and income caps. VA loans are also available for 100% financing.

Escapee, you might want to thank your democratic congress for voting against regulation that would have limited FRE/FNM investments outside of their typical parameters between 2003-2006 while you are thanking our past president. Not saying he did everything right, just saying blame deserves to go around, all the way around.

Gotta go, absolutely slammed with refis…and have to get out by 5 to run over to the Zags game!
Escapee on February 19 at 8:50 p.m.
Well, Mr. J-Mac…What was done in the past is, well, in the past. I also admit I haven’t researched FRE/FNM; I don’t even know what those are. So I’m ignorant. Okay, I admit it. Even if I went to ‘wherever I would go’ to research that, the past is still the past. It just seems to me that Obama is getting a whole lot of flak these days for everything. So far, I like what he’s done, and let’s hope he can get a lot more accomplished. Oh, and it’s not “my” Democratic congress, it’s “our” CONGRESS. So don’t pigeonhole me, please. I tend to get awful sassy when that happens.
JIMMYMAC on February 19 at 11:12 p.m.
Sorry escapee, shoulda said “our congress”. I’m with you on hoping that much will get done to help our battered economy. Unfortunately, I think it is going to be, and needs to be, a painful and somewhat lengthy process. Obama is only one man and can’t change the past but I hope he and his economic council keep the focus on aggressive job creation. That would be a much needed band aid to our problems. Sorry for being sounding patronizing, i should have been more tactful.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.