Our Community Power Blog

If you’re in mortgage trouble and have made 2-3 late payments, the FHA Secure Expansion is what you may need.

The Bush administration has recently declared the FHA Secure Expansion with the aim to provide mortgage help to borrowers struggling with their high cost subprime loans. Under this plan, the Federal Housing administration (FHA) will be insuring more loans on which borrowers are late twice/thrice and have even received a principal write-down from the lenders.

Thus, if you’re looking to refinance to get out of the existing mortgage, and you aren’t getting approval for conventional loans, then FHA Secure Expansion may be the right choice for you.

As expected by the FHA, the program is likely to provide mortgage help to 500,000 families thereby allowing them to refinance into FHA loans by the end of this year. But perhaps it’s too early to contemplate such a huge effect. However, the best thing about this program is that, it includes borrowers who’ve been late on their payments unlike what the previous FHA Secure program demanded as its eligibility criteria.

However, borrowers willing to come under this plan will have to fulfill certain eligibility criteria as available at http://www.mortgagefit.com/foreclosure/fhasecure-expansion.html .

Technorati Tags: mortgage help, fha secure expansion, fha refinance

If you are facing problems with your mortgage payments and you are on the verge of losing your home then a foreclosure rescue scheme may seem like an attractive solution. But everything that seems fascinating from a distance can turn out really ugly when seen closely. It is same with such rescue schemes.  Why don’t you sneak a peep into the real story behind these rescue schemes?

In recent times, the BBB has received complaints at an alarming rate from victims of foreclosure rescue fraudsters. Vulnerable homeowners seeking financial guidance are easily exploited and scammed by the so called foreclosure “rescue” companies. One of the common scams to be on the lookout for is: Read the rest of this entry »

If you have a home of your own or would like to buy one, watch out for the 3 new tax breaks that can help you save more.

1. Mortgage Debt forgiveness: There are homeowners who are not able to carry on with their mortgage payments and as such they may opt for foreclosure, short sale, deed-in-lieu and the like. While doing so, they may not be able to recover the entire debt. This is when the lender has no option but to forgive the debt.

The amount of debt canceled is considered as income and hence taxes should be paid on it. But with the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, 2007 coming into effect, homeowners can exclude the taxes on this debt amount.

2. Mortgage Insurance: Homeowners opting for loans with private mortgage insurance can deduct their premiums from the taxes and this will continue for the nest 3 years.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re about to buy a home, a down payment is what you need to put in. But if it amounts to less than 20%, you will have to purchase PMI or Private mortgage insurance policy even if it protects the lender and not you.

Getting a PMI isn’t always a good decision for all home buyers. Given below are 4 such reasons why you should take out a mortgage without paying for PMI.

PMI Costs:

What you pay for buying the PMI policy is 0.5-1% of the mortgage amount. Say for example, you have taken a loan of $150,000. The costs of PMI for such a loan will be maximum $1500 (1% of loan amount), that is, $125 on a monthly basis. Now, if the average home price is around $250,000, then one has to spend $2500 (1% of $250,000) on the insurance annually and $208 nearly ($2500/12) a month. And that’s almost what you may be paying on your auto loan each month! So, it’s better that you avoid going for the PMI.

Read the rest of this entry »

Does your granny prefer a walking stick to walk by the road or the park? Probably so because that gives her the support she needs when you’re not around. It’s a friend, a guide that protects her from getting hurt and gives her the strength that can make her walk. But what about the financial support that she may require? What if she had a dream and couldn’t get it fulfilled just because of

lack of funds or the regular responsibilities that prevented her from doing so?

If it was my granny, I would have tried to take out cash from my savings account and made her dream come true. But are you prepared to help your granny with the required funds to pay for her Medicaid bills, or the like? If you aren’t, don’t worry and don’t feel you’re unworthy of her love and affection. There’s a way out by which your granny can acquire funds even at her old age – it’s by way of a reverse mortgage..

What’s a reverse mortgage?

It’s a financing option which helps an aged person (62 and above) pull out the equity in his/her home either through monthly cash payments or through a credit line account.

Are you worried thinking, if your granny isn’t able to pay for the mortgage, she’ll be in trouble? No way, once the loan period is over, either you (or any of her heirs) pay off the entire loan or else the lender should sell your granny’s home and get back the cash he has invested for the loan. So, the most important thing is your granny need not pay instead the lender pays your granny. Isn’t it strange? It may be but that’s how a reverse mortgage works. It’s just like a walking stick giving one the financial support to give his/her home a new look, or purchase a big car and anything which one cannot easily afford with the social security income.

Interested to know more about Reverse Mortgages? Know in details from here.

Technorati tags:reverse mortgage, mortgage for senior, old age walking stick