Mortgage Monday

Obama wants to further enhance government assistance for homeowners in order to refinance their mortgages with lower rates. Mortgage rates are at an all-time low and all homeowners should be able to benefit!  The Administration wants every homeowner to be able to lower their mortgage rate and suggests that it be funded by a tax on the largest banks.  This is a two headed tiger in that if the banks are taxed to chip in for the lower payments charged to consumers; they will inevitably increase other fees to cover their outlay.

Why should all consumers be allowed to lower their interest rate- just because? Of course there are pros and cons to this.

Lower interest rates on mortgage will allow those who are choking on their current payment to lower it and possibly afford to stay in their home. Staying off a foreclosure and being able to coast until things get better will help keep thousands of houses off the market. Better for the real estate rebound!

Those that can afford their monthly payment, but will have a better cash flow by lowering their housing expense, will have more money to spend on consumer good s and services. Thus, helping the economy, increase production, employment and then make the world a better place.

The inevitable fact that Big Banks will increase fees on consumer accounts might be the overall give up in order to get it.  What fees will increase? Well Bank of America placed a 3 dollar fee on my account so I get to see the itty bitty copies of the checks I wrote out and a fifteen dollar fee on my business account so I could pay my bills online and link my accounts. So, I switched all my accounts to Capital One which has no fees. There you go, I can lower my mortgage interest rate, have more money to spend and avoid unwanted bank fees! What’s next?