Well this also sucks for me. I hate to admit to being a FB. I’m one of the ones with an interest only loan who refinanced it back in summer of 2006. I went from a neg am to an I/O loan – yes I know I was a fool to have done it and I was a fool to have had a neg am. I thought I’d make up the difference with extra work – my house payment went up 57% in one month and it has been a nightmare ever since.
Now I’m in the process of short selling my house. So just as I exit my house and become a renter I will watch others who were in my situation now get to keep their homes at affordable rates. My income is $130K a year so I could make payments on an affordable mortgage but my last refi caused me major pain. I am not a speculator – just a guy who has tried to support a family of four on his own for the last 22 years and tried to do everything within his means to keep them in a house.
Something else to mention here: the lenders also took their share of equity out of my house. I refinanced twice during the last four years – yes, stupid – and each time the lenders took money out of my house to pay for prepayment penalties that totaled at least $36,000. Then add in all their “fees” and it amounted to about $60,000 taken out of my house as “fees” and “costs” for the lenders. That’s $60,000 that I never saw, that I never touched, that I never spent on cars, toys, vacations, etc.
And, yes, I agree with you that I never “owned” it. I was just a renter and my landlord was a mortgage backed security. And what does a mortgage backed security know about being a landlord !?!
