Mitch Milat Loan Officer Augusta Financial Phone: 661-810-3362 Fax: 661-260-2252 mitch@mitch4loans.com Online: www.MitchforLoans.com

Discouraging Foreclosures! President Obama to Announce Plan at 8:15 am - Here are some expected details Please click this link to read the story, and further details below: Obama to unveil $75B mortgage relief plan President Barack Obama's plan to tackle the foreclosure crisis will spend $75 billion in an effort to prevent up to 9 million Americans from losing their homes. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29256639/from/ET/ Obama sets aside $75 billion to slow foreclosures Program would seek to bring mortgage payments down to 31% of income By Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch Last Update: 10:09 AM ET 2/18/09 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled a plan to help 9 million "at risk" homeowners modify their mortgages, committing $75 billion of taxpayer money to back the initiative. The plan contains two separate programs. One program is aimed at 4 to 5 million struggling homeowners with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to help them refinance their mortgages through the two institutions. A separate program would potentially help 3 to 4 million homeowners by allowing them to modify their mortgages to lower monthly interest rates through any participarting lender. Under this plan, the lender would voluntarily lower the interest rate and the government would provide subsidies to the lender. "The plan I'm announcing focuses on rescuing families who have played by the rules and acted responsibly: by refinancing loans for millions of families in traditional mortgages who are underwater or close to it; by modifying loans for families stuck in sub-prime mortgages they can't afford as a result of skyrocketing interest rates or personal misfortune; and by taking broader steps to keep mortgage rates low so that families can secure loans with affordable monthly payments," President Barack Obama said in prepared remarks. Under the modification program which would involve government subsidies to lenders, lenders will be responsible for bringing down interest rates so that a borrower's monthly mortgage payment is no more than 38% of their pre-tax income. After that the government program would match the amount reduced by the lender to bring a homeowner's payments down to 31% of their pre-tax income. As part of the $75 billion initiative, servicers will receive $1000 for each successful modification, as well as additional government funding for each month the borrower stays current on its loan. Homeowners can also receive $1000 a year for five years as part of the program, as long as they stay current on their loan payments. The program also provides additional incentives to lenders who modify at risk loans before the borrower falls behind. Obama will travel to a hard-hit Arizona community Wednesday to announce details of the program to modify mortgages for troubled homeowners. Obama and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will discuss their plan in Mesa, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix that has been reeling from the housing industry meltdown and economic slowdown. Mesa -- Arizona's third-largest city -- saw its median home price fall 35% over the past 12 months to $140,000 in January. More than 300 families lost their homes to foreclosure there in January. Funding will come from the remaining $350 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds. Obama plans to package this approach within a larger housing bill that lets bankruptcy judges alter mortgages and lower interest rates for troubled homeowners. Such a provision requires legislative approval on Capitol Hill. Citigroup Inc. (C) has endorsed this approach, though other banks have yet to. That lower interest rate must be kept in place for five years. Leif Thomsen, chief executive of Mortgage Master, a Boston-based mortgage lender, said he believes the government should make those lower interest rates permanent, but 5 years is better than a shorter amount. "A five year modification is better than a six month modification," he said. The program also requires quarterly meetings between the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Housing and Urban Development agency and the Federal Reserve to monitor the program. In another smaller separate program to be announed Wednesday, funding of $1.5 billion would be provided to help renters displaced by foreclosure to relocate and $2 billion to stabilize neighborhoods that are experiencing high levels of foreclosure. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ronald D. Orol is a MarketWatch reporter, based in Washington. Copyright © 2009 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use. MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc. Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use. Intraday data is at least 15-minutes delayed. All times are ET. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data. Thanks, Mitch Milat-Augusta Financial 24018 Lyons Avenue Newhall,Ca 91321 www.MitchforLoans.com 661-810-3362

------------------------------------------------------------------------FHA Hikes MI Premiums  

Starting Oct. 1, the Federal Housing Administration says it will charge homebuyers a 1.75% upfront mortgage insurance premium on single-family loans and a 3% upfront premium on FHA Secure loans for delinquent borrowers. Borrowers with loan-to-value ratios above 95% will pay a 55-basis-point annual premium. Borrowers with LTVs of 95% or less will pay a 50-bp annual premium. A recently passed housing bill requires the FHA to abandon risk-based pricing for 12 months. So the agency has notified lenders that it is temporarily returning to standard pricing. Before July 14, the FHA charged a 1.5% upfront premium and a 50-bp annual premium on all single-family loans. The agency is raising the premiums to reflect higher loss rates and higher risks of refinancing delinquent borrowers. The upfront premium for existing FHA borrowers to refinance will remain at 1.5%. 

Thank you,

____________________________________

Bill Greene
Countrywide
Countrywide Bank, FSB
801 North Brand Blvd Ste 400
Glendale, CA 91203

-------- MARKET RECAP Rollercoaster aficionados had a field day last week, for up-and-down volatility was the norm, not the exception. Countrywide Financial, the country's largest mortgage servicer, spent most of the week pressuring capital markets with rumors of bankruptcy, but then Bank of America rallied the markets by stepping forward and announcing it was purchasing the beleaguered mortgage giant in a $4 billion stock-exchange transaction. Earlier in the week, the National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales decreased 2.6% in November following a larger-than-expected 3.7% gain in October. But the grim outlook was tempered by Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist, who said that “although there could be some minor slippage in the first quarter, existing home sales should hold in a narrow range before trending up.” The disappointing pending-sales report was further mitigated by good news in the mortgage markets, where application volume – both refinance and purchase – surged 32.2% during the holiday shortened week ending Jan. 4, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly application survey. What's more, application activity could surge again in coming weeks, thanks to plunging mortgage rates. By week's end, the prime 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.87%, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.43%, and the five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 5.63%, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Mortgage rates are now at levels unseen since Sept. 2005. Economic Indicator Release Date and Time Consensus Estimate Analysis Producer Price Index (December) Tues. Jan. 15, 8:30 am, et All Goods: 0.2% (Increase) Core: 0.2% (Increase) Very Important. Lower producer-price increases give the Federal Reserve leeway to cut interest rates. Retail Sales (December) Tues. Jan.15, 8:30 am, et 0.1% (Increase) Important. The anemic increase suggests a slowing economy heading into 2008. Business Inventories (November) Tues. Jan.15, 10:00 am, et 0.5% (Increase) Moderately Important. The expected increase is unlikely to impact credit markets. Mortgage Applications Wed. Jan. 16, 7:00 am, et None Important. Lower mortgage rates and home prices are stimulating purchase-application activity. Consumer Price Index (December) Wed. Jan. 16, 8:30 am, et All Goods: 0.2% (Increase) Core: 0.2% (Increase) Very Important. The expected increase suggests decreasing inflationary pressure. Industrial Capacity Utilization (December) Wed. Jan. 16, 9:15 am, et 81.4% Moderately Important. Utilization rates remain within historical norms. NAHB Housing Index (January) Wed. Jan. 16, 1:00 pm, et 19 Index Important. Markets are looking for signs of stabilization in home sales. Beige Book Wed. Jan. 16, 2:00 pm, et None Important. Credit markets will parse the book for signs of further interest-rate cuts. Housing Starts (December) Thurs. Jan. 17, 8:30 am, et 1.15 Million (Annualized) Important. Starts are expected to hit a multi-year low, but a few economists say lower prices are stimulating demand. Leading Indicators (December) Fri. Jan. 18, 10:00 am, et 0.2% (Decrease) Moderately Important. The expected decrease in economic activity should already be reflected in the capital markets. BAD MEDICINE Bank of America's rescue of Countrywide was received positively last week, as it should have been; no one wants to see the country's largest mortgage servicer go under. But there was a disconcerting acknowledgment in the accompanying press release: “The combined company won't make subprime mortgages and will limit its purchases of large packages of loans from other lenders.” That's too bad, because the current mortgage crisis has never been about subprime mortgages per say: It has been about the pricing of subprime mortgages, which didn't reflect the risks involved. Down payments, interest rates, and fees have to reflect borrower risk. This is the economic rationale for giving someone with an 800 FICO score a 6% loan with nothing down and giving someone with a 600 FICO score a 9% loan with 20% down. That paradigm broke down, and needs to be revisited. As homes become more affordable, the last thing we want is to exclude qualified people from the housing market, and that includes people who only qualify for subprime mortgages. The key to successful lending is to appropriately price the risk of lending. Hopefully more people will embrace that economic maxim once the credit crisis

BAD MEDICINE Bank of America's rescue of Countrywide was received positively last week, as it should have been; no one wants to see the country's largest mortgage servicer go under. But there was a disconcerting acknowledgment in the accompanying press release: “The combined company won't make subprime mortgages and will limit its purchases of large packages of loans from other lenders.” That's too bad, because the current mortgage crisis has never been about subprime mortgages per say: It has been about the pricing of subprime mortgages, which didn't reflect the risks involved. Down payments, interest rates, and fees have to reflect borrower risk. This is the economic rationale for giving someone with an 800 FICO score a 6% loan with nothing down and giving someone with a 600 FICO score a 9% loan with 20% down. That paradigm broke down, and needs to be revisited. As homes become more affordable, the last thing we want is to exclude qualified people from the housing market, and that includes people who only qualify for subprime mortgages. The key to successful lending is to appropriately price the risk of lending. Hopefully more people will embrace that economic maxim once the credit crisis subsides. Email: mitch@mitch4loans.com Visit my website at www.fffloans.com If you wish to unsubscribe, click on the following link and send the email: Click Here To Unsubscribe EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY This Newsletter is for informational purposes only. The information contained herein may not be applicable to every situation or jurisdiction and we urge you to consult your professional advisor prior to acting on information contained herein. The content, accuracy and opinions expressed herein are not verified or endorsed by the sponsor hereof.