Didn't vote for you in 2008 but will in 2012

 Dear President Obama,

As a registered Independent voter, during the 2008 Presidential election I did not support your candidacy.  I want you to know that I have not voted Democratic since the Clinton election in 1990, but I will be voting for you this coming election.   Although I don't agree with all your policies, I do believe that you are trying to help the people who are struggling during these challenging times.  Although my ideology is more in line with that of Republicans, I recognize during this challenging economic time, that we the people need compassion and understanding not "tough love".   Although I strongly believe in self-reliance and standing on your own two feet, through no fault of ours, we the people have had the rug pulled out from under our feet.  We are now trying to regain our balance, but in order to do so we need a hand up not a hand out.

I'm not an economist, and I am sure you have the best of the best economic advisers guiding you, but as an average American citizen, to me, it is a "blinding flash of the obvious" that we need to stabilize the housing market and until we do, we will just be kicking the can down the road.  Too many people are losing or have lost their homes due to the misrepresentation by the lenders of the interest only loans. Granted there are those who have lost their homes due to neglect and /or overindulgence, but there are so many more hard working Americans who have lost their home to due their employers downsizing, restructuring, relocating or bankruptcy.  For those scenarios mentioned there is assistance through your Affordable Home Modification initiative, yet for others such as myself who is employed, meets their financial obligations there is no relief and I struggle to understand why.

Under your current plan as it was explained to me when I called, those of us who do not have Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans or those of us who have not defaulted on our mortgage or other debts,  do not qualify for the Obama affordable home initiative.  Additionally due to the collapse of the mortgage market, we cannot take advantage of the low interest rates due to our equity being depleted.  Therefore under current banking policies, to take advantage of the low interest rates, we would be required to pay private mortgage insurance (PMI).  This is ludicrous.  First, when we bought our homes many of us put down 20% to avoid paying PMI, and secondly the entire purpose of refinancing is to increase our disposable income not decrease it or just break even.  It is those of us that are employed who are going to spend our monies on goods and services; therefore, it is we who will grow the economy, so why wouldn’t the financial institutions want to help us?

Although  I am grateful that I am able to  meet my obligations(barely) and do realize how fortunate I am compared to so many others, it does not negate the fact that I, and so many like me are being squeezed and not in a good way.  

I don’t pretend to have the answers…I’m not even sure that I know all the questions.  But what I do know is that “no man is an Island”  What is going on currently with the housing market affects all of us.  When homes are abandoned, or foreclosed on, it impacts our neighbors, communities, our cities and towns, etc.  If we don’t implement comprehensive plan to stimulate the housing market , I fear that we have only begun to see the domino effect.

So please Mr. President continue this initiative and consider tweaking it a bit to include those of us who presently do not qualify under the current rules of your affordable housing initiative. 

Respectfully,

Sharon T