Thanks for signing the Housing Rescue Bill Bushy.

It’s almost like you can’t get away from this news about the new housing rescue bill signed by president Bush.

For those of you keeping score at home here are a few stats:

• Foreclosure Filings are up 120%
• 220,000 homes were lost to foreclosure in the 2nd quarter of this year
• 1 in every 171 US households has received a filing

Obviously this is an important topic, so I thought it would be appropriate to go over the three most common questions to see how this will effect you and the people you work with.

What is this legislation supposed to do?

It will allow qualified homeowners to re-fi the existing loan with the current lender for 90% of the current value.

Doesn’t that sound super?  It’s not.  There are some problems in this little equation.  First, the lender has to agree to the re-fi, because they will be the ones carrying the note.  Second, if your not behind in your payments, then they will not approve you.  There are tons of people hanging on by a thread that will not qualify.

Who is eligible?

Families who spend at least 31% of their monthly income on their mortgage.  Keep in mind that it has to be a primary residence.  I guess this doesn’t help the owners of the 2.2 million vacant homes for sale.

Where do you apply?

You can either speak to your lender, or contact HUD directly

I’m in Florida, so there are a lot of homes that will not qualify for this program and will end up in foreclosure or sold on Short Sale.  Although I think this bill will be helpful, more needs to be done to shore up our housing market.

Inevitably some properties will need to be sold to investors at prices that would make sense.  The banks need to get on board with this idea.  As an investor I think it would benefit the lenders to go ahead and start liquidating these properties before foreclosure to avoid all the costs associated with the foreclosure as well as reducing some of the load at the courthouse.

These foreclosures not only cost the lenders money, but they are wasting our tax dollars with all these hearings.  The only people benefiting are the attorneys shuffling paper and collecting fees.

OK, so I’m not so positive this week, but sometimes you’ve just got to vent, right?

What do you think about this new bill?  Is it helpful?  Share your thoughts in the comments section below.