Stimulus Bill

Well Barrack Obama has signed the Stimulus Bill and he stated that this is the beginning of the end of the economic meltdown we are in. Unfortunatley for the housing industry there is not much to it. A few items that did come out of it for housing were.

1. The first-time home buyer tax credit was raised to $8000 if you purchase a home in 2009 and this $8000 does not need to be re-paid.

2. The government will be trying to help homeowners prevent foreclosure by giving bonuses to the lenders for modifying home loans, so homeowners can remain in their house.

3. If you owe more than your house is worth, you will soon have a couple of options.
a. You can try and negotiate with your lender to get them to lower your principal balance and interest rate to a level that is within certain debt-to-income ratios. The lender will be re-imbursed by the gov't for any principal reductions the give. They will also be entitled to 50% of any equity you earn from that day forward.
b. Starting in April, you can refinance you may be able to refinance your loan without an appraisal. So if you would ike to take advantage of today's historical low rates, but do not have the equity to do so, you will be able to starting in April. You can only do a rate-term refinance, you can't take any cash-out.

4. The conforming loan limit in the metro area remains unchanged at $417,000 but the FHA loan limit was raised back up to its temporary 2008 level of $365,000.

These are small stepping stones to a big problem. If you want a good explanation of how we got into this mess in the first place, look for a CNBC Special Report, "House of Cards" It is a 2 hour special on how the mortgage world collapsed. VERY WORTHWHILE!!!