This kind of passed under the radar last week but if you have a underwater home loan mortgage with Bank of America. (including old Countrywide Mortgage loans) you may want to give them a call to see if you are eligible for some help. You could potentially have your loan balanced reduced by thousands of dollars. Bank of America is not doing this out of charity but in the hopes of reducing the penalties it owes to the government under the big settlement announced previously. So far, BOA is the only bank to be doing this but they hold a lot of loans in the Washington area and this could come as relief to some homeowners in the area who purchased their home at the height of the bubble. For more information on this see this article.
Speaking of mortgages, I think one of the key reasons that the economy is starting to work again is that consumer spending is up. One of the reasons is that many home owners are refinancing due to the amazingly low rates being offered today. I have been in real estate for over 25 years and never thought I would see interest rates so low. (I recall they were 17% when I bought my first home in 1982) The savings in monthly payments for the average five year old home loan can be quite a bonus, and this is freeing up extra money in households for people to spend on consumer items. Overall this is good for the economy as our economy is driven by consumer spending more than anything else.
If you are sitting on an older loan it might be a good idea to talk to your lender about refinancing. You may cut your monthly mortgage expense by hundreds of dollars by refinancing now. I can't imagine rates going any lower than they are now, so better look into it.
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