Forum Archive

So in light of all a couple recent posts (Dahill, etal) on the new refinancing plans that Prez Obama has announced, I have this to report: I called my lender (Chase) this morning to ask them for advice on our mortgage (my husband and I have a 30 year fixed at %6.5). We’ve been making every payment on time, but as I was laid off last Nov. due to budget cuts, I’m slowly depleting my savings looking for work, and want to secure a more pragmatic rate. (Btw, the value of our BK coop has remained steady).

After being on hold for 20 minutes with the friendly folks at Chase, I was read to (yes, actually “read to”) by the deer-in-headlights “mortgage advisor” at Chase (I’m pretty sure she was at a call center in Manila–not that that is important, it’s more surreal than anything else) for about three minutes which gave vague bulletpoint details about Obama’s plan but no concrete assistance (ie, I wanted to ask Chase what I could actively do to improve our rate/payments over the long term, etc). She basically said they didn’t have any advice on the matter and re: the latest refi/home assistance plans coming out of DC, wouldn’t have any more info until probably the end of March.

So. I followed up by emailing our mortgage broker, who left me a VM saying that until Obama’s housing plans were actually IMPLEMENTED, they are more theory than anything else. She also said that since I’m recently unemployed, she suggests we do a loan modification instead of a refi, to avoid closing costs.

Just wanted to share my experiences and see what others out there in a similar situation have been contemplating!