I'm just wondering how many people are being helped by any of the various programs being thrown around. Despite all the "effort" by our politicians, we continue to be left out of them all.

We bought our house in Tampa, FL in August 2006. The market was still high here with no forseeing that it was going to crash. So no HAP for us.

We didn't buy over our heads and we are prudent with savings, so no loan modification for us. Now we are PCSing to JAPAN in 2 months, I will lose my job, our BAH will lower and we can't rent the house for near enough to cover expenses. We'd like to refinance. We are at 7% fixed and going down to todays interest rates would really help with renting the house out. BUT...

We have perfect credit (820) and money in the bank to pay down to 80% for a refinance, but have been turned down because we live "in an area of continuing decling home values", even though Fannie Mae does own our loan and we should be able to refinance up to 105%.

I'm just wondering, if we can't refinance, who can? Is anyone really getting help?

Sarah,

You clearly have an excellent grasp of your finances and have made prudent decisions. You are also asking the correct question. Why are deserving Military Families, ordered to move, continually ignored by lawmakers and DOD?

The fact that a HAP was even thrown in "HAPhazardly" (forgive the bad play on words) was a small victory for us in that they at least finally acknowledged that there is a problem. This was the result of folks like you writing and demanding that Congress acknowledge the issue! But it will take lots more and as we have seen, it won't come easily or quickly.

To answer your question, in our experience, the government programs in general have been very ineffective. For instance, the original loan modification legislation about 1 year ago left it entirely optional for lenders...and virtually none of them participated! The HAP had such a narrow window (noted you missed by slightly over a month) that if left thousands of Military Families out...one family settled ON July 1st, 2006, which means they were left out by a matter of hours! And even those who are "in the window" are very likely to be disappointed when they learn that they may still suffer significant losses in the "buyout."

In the final analysis, these sorts of losses are directly related to your employment with the government, and should be considered an expense of the employer...just like they are with a number of other federal agencies.
Career Military Families should have a buy out program on par with these other agencies...shouldn't they? Or am I missing the big picture?

We strongly encourage you to write, then call, your Congressmen / Senators and DEMAND that they get this fixed. Then call again and be a major pain in their backside. Get your friends and families to do the same! We have prewritten letters on www.moresam.net with addresses as well. By the way, you can advertise your home on this site (for sale or rent) by owner at no charge!

We will hope for an acceptable outcome for you and family. By the way, before you give up on refinancing, I encourage you to call / email Susan Wallace. She is an expert in this field and may be able to help. Contact info is on her picture on the left.

Joe