In another stunning display of ignorance (or is it arrogance), our president has selected David Stevens to head FHA (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEt0W9oKsEQc&refer=home). Stevens is the former Freddie Mac mortgage executive responsible for Freddie's Home Possible program, described as "MORTGAGES FOR BORROWERS WITH LIMITED CREDIT, SAVINGS (http://www.freddiemac.com/news/archives/afford_housing/2005/20050216_hp.html)."


Working families and many key community workers –police, firefighters, teachers, and healthcare workers – from across the nation can now take advantage of Home Possible Mortgages – a new suite of low downpayment mortgage products with flexible credit underwriting standards that is expected to help thousands of families with savings issues or imperfect credit become homeowners, announced Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE), one of the nation's largest investors in residential mortgages.

"We created Home Possible Mortgages so more lenders can say 'Yes' to more borrowers," said David Stevens, senior vice president of single family sourcing at Freddie Mac. "Home Possible is what our lenders tell us they need to compete in today's market: a flexible, easy-to-use mortgage uniting Loan Prospector's ease and efficiency with exceptionally low-downpayments and flexible credit. Perhaps no other mortgage product launched in recent memory will enable our lenders to reach and help as many additional borrowers as Home Possible."

Let's see, create another program to loan thousands of dollars to financially challenged people, watch mortgage defaults surge and Freddie Mae collapse... get job running FHA. What was that outrage last week about rewarding incompetence?

This is about as crazy as nominating a tax cheat to head the IRS.

You got to excuse the President . He had a bad week . He's a little punch-drunk cracking jokes about the handicapped on national TV and spewing gallows humor.

Yeah ;lets bring back no money down mortgages and flexible lending rules. It worked out so well before !

I'm sure Steven's will be able to explain to the Senate how it will work out better this time. Expect tough probing questions during his confirmation hearing .

Circa 2005 :



Flexible credit requirements, aggressive debt-to-income ratios and minimal borrower cash contributions are part of an entirely new suite of affordable lending products rolled out by one of the nation's largest providers of mortgage money.
The loans will allow lenders to dig deeper into the pool of families who have good incomes from years on the job, but who have been unable to rub more than a few nickels together for a down payment and closing costs. And with some special features that can boost the buying power of community workers by nearly 25 percent, a greatly expanded group of law-enforcement personnel, firefighters, health-care workers and teachers should find the loans particularly appealing.
The products won't be one-shot deals obtainable through only a handful of primary lenders. Rather, they will be available from any of the hundreds of mortgage bankers, banks and credit unions that do business with Freddie Mac .
Freddie Mac is one of the two financial institutions chartered by Congress to keep the money flowing from investors worldwide to the lenders in practically every city in America.
“This is a whole new, complete suite of products we never had before,” says Freddie Mac Vice President David Stevens . “It fills a lot of voids.”
One of the new offerings, “Home Possible,” should bridge the chasm between fanfare and fizzle. Typically, products are introduced with great fervor. But when consumers try to track them down, they can't find them because they are available, often on an experimental basis, from just a few lenders.
But starting March 1, every lender that does business with Freddie Mac will be able to offer Home Possible. The company buys loans from more than 3,000 banks, credit unions, mortgage companies and other originators. “This will be a mass distribution to the entire marketplace,” Stevens promises. “It will be mainstreamed and it will be available everywhere.”
Moreover, lenders will be able to submit loan applications via Freddie 's automated underwriting system, so approvals should come in a matter of minutes rather than months. Only if an application is flagged by the computer will a human being enter the picture to make a final determination.
Generally, affordable products are designed for people who earn 80 percent or less of the median income for their area, leaving those who make more to fend for themselves in the open market.
Home Possible, on the other hand, targets folks who make up to 100 percent of median. “Anything below that is considered affordable,” the Freddie Mac executive says. If the house you are buying is located in an area designated as “underserved” by Uncle Sam, there is no income limit.


$500 DOWN AND YOU'VE GOT A HOUSE, IF YOU CAN AFFORD ONE. - Free Online Library (http://www.thefreelibrary.com/$500+DOWN+AND+YOU'VE+GOT+A+HOUSE,+IF+YOU+CAN+AFFOR D+ONE-a0129927964)

Just packaged under another catchy name. Same old malarkey. Why don't they just "give" the toxic loan homes to these people at say $5 a month and get it over with?

What are the bankers going to do with all that toxic paper and homes anyway? They are greedy SOBs in that they want top dollar for homes that are "on paper" worth much more than what the place is in reality worth.

Hey, let's stick it to all the working "stiffs" out there in America and start this whole mess all over again!

Glad you thought of this option O, I'm certain that the stock market will zoom up as promised shortly to make you look "good". Good like a $3 whore at a wedding I'm sure.