Military Members have someone to fight for them!

In a follow up to the blog I posted 2 weeks ago, here is some very good news for servicemembers and FHA mortgage holders.  If you follow these stories, you know that military members that are serving in a combat zone out of the country cannot pay more than a 6% mortgage rate.  In addition, they cannot be foreclosed upon while in theatre.  However, Bank of America and other mortgage servicers did not change the rate and in fact foreclosed on many soldiers while they were in Afganastan, Iraq, and other combat zones around the world.  The Presidents effort on thier behalf has been a welcome chnage of position away from giving big banks anything they want.  Let me know what you think...

Obama's Housing Relief Plans for Servicemembers and FHA Borrowers

03/06/2012 By: Esther Cho

     

President Obama is announcing two steps that will be taken to assist servicemembers and FHA borrowers, the administration stated in a release today.

For the first full news conference of the year, Obama’s agenda includes details on how support will be provided for those currently in and who previously served in the military.
One provision will have servicemen who were foreclosed upon since 2006 reviewed, and if any are found to have been wrongfully foreclosed upon, they can receive compensation equal to a minimum of lost equity, plus interest and $116,785. In addition to foreclosure reviews, servicemembers will be reviewed for interest rates to see if any were charged more than 6 percent after a request to lower the rate.
For veterans, $10 million will go into the Veterans Affairs fund to guarantee loans on favorable terms.
Plans for FHA borrowers include refinancing at a lower cost. The FHA currently charges an up-front mortgage insurance premium of 1 percent of the loan balance and an additional 1.15 percent of the balance per year; the up-front premium will be reduced to .01 percent for loans originated prior to June 1, 2009. Annual fees for refinancing will be halved to .55 percent.
The administration estimates 2-3 million FHA borrowers will be eligible.