| Home equity loan avoids fees of refinancing mortgage
Q. I would like to refinance my adjustable-rate mortgage to lock in one of today's low rates. But I don't want to pay a lot of fees for a new mortgage that would actually make my monthly payments bigger over the next year. Refinancing would cost thousands, which seems like an awful lot for a loan of only about $80,000. What should I do? A. You might consider a home equity loan instead of an ordinary mortgage. Many home equity loans are unusually attractive now. Yours is a dilemma that confronts many homeowners with adjustable mortgages, or ARMs: They may be happy with the low interest rates they're paying today - in many cases only 4 percent or so - but they worry their rates will rise in the future. It would be nice to lock into a low fixed rate, but refinancing fees can total thousands.
More Risk for Fannie, Freddie?
Currently, FHA can't guarantee mortgages higher than $367,000. The plan, as outlined by Speaker Pelosi, also expands the role of FHA in assisting homeowners in trouble. In addition to raising the loan limits for FHA, Congress will permit more borrowers facing defaults to refinance through the FHA, and increase funding for housing counseling to $500 million to help home buyers who fall behind on their mortgage. Raising the loan limits should allow a larger pool of borrowers to qualify for lower-cost mortgages or to refinance existing mortgages, something that has been difficult to do since mortgage lenders pulled back from nonconforming loans. "This, along with the fact that interest rates have dropped, will give a big kick to the demand side of the housing market," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight, an economic consulting firm in Lexington, Mass.
Savings and loan crisis cost taxpayers too much
Economic bubbles that burst get government bailouts. That's historically the way it's worked. The need to stabilize the farm banking system was given as the reason for the mid-80's farm aid. The savings and loan crisis cost taxpayers far more than deposit insurance could cover. Today, it's the Adjustable Rate Home Mortgage bubble that has burst and the Bush administration is attempting to cushion the blow with a plan to help borrowers refinance. 1.8 million ARMs reset to higher rates this year. The Bush administration worries that as many as 1.2 million of these are at risk of foreclosure without help. As was the case with the 1980's farm crisis, the government's plan doesn't bail out banks directly. The mortgage industry will lose $150-400 billion as a result of subprime mortgage losses.
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