We are in a big mess. Fixing it will take months or years. What the stock market does in the short term has no bearing on whether the Fed is "doing enough" or whether the measures "are working" or not. This thinking is beyond ridiculous.

In the past two days, I can't tell you how many times I heard something like: "It appears the bailout has not done enough" or "What else can the Fed do?"

Does anybody undertsand that whatever the government is doing to help the economy does not take hours, days or even weeks? It takes months and probably years for rate cuts and liquidity to work their way through the economy.

The fact that the Dow index dropped by 1000 points does not have anything to do with what the Fed and Congress are doing.

The Fed and several other national banks of other countries just cut rates. It is not a bad idea and it is part of their job to cut rates to help the econmy, but once again: The only way for the mess to end is to let it hit bottom. I still don't understand how government officials can think that they can influencemarkets for the long term.

The housing market is by far, the biggest contributor to the current global crisis. It cannot be helped in any significant way by rate cuts, bailouts or any other new government program.

Let's face reality: Home prices grew too fast and got  absurdly high. They have to come down to where they should havebeen or even below that before the housing market starts to rebound. The fact that therer are two (three? five?) million homes in or entering foreclosure will keep the housing market on it's downward trend. The only thing that the government should be doing is shortening the foreclosure process so that we can get through this mess a little sooner.

The unfortunate reality is that the Federal bailout, which may have been necessary for other reasons, will not stop the housing market from continuing its decent. The same goes for the stock market, the oil market, the currency market  or any other market.

Markets (in a capitalist democracy, like ours)are cyclical and they will have to hit their own bottom before they get better.

Most Reverse Mortgage Loan officers in high-cost areas like California and New York are as upset as I am over the new limits being raised from $362,790 to $417,000. If you live in a low-cost area where the limit was $200,160, you are now very happy that your limit doubled, but for us, this is a miniscule raise and what bothers me the most is that it tookt hem two months to come up with ONE NATIONAL limit of $417,000. Couldn't they have come up with that in a week? I was hoping for some complicated formula that was dependent on median home prices in a given area that went as high as $625,000. That would have helped out a lot more than what we now have.

I just received notice that HUD announced the new limits. To say that I am dissapointed is an understatement. The new limit is $417,000. That is an absurdly small increase here in New York where the limit was already $362,790. I have to start calling everyone who was waiting for the news. They take effect on november 1.

We were all hoping that we would know how exactly the Housing & Economic Recovery Act (HERA) that passed on July 30th woul be interpreted by HUD. Specifically, what the new FHA limits would be for Reverse Mortgages and when they would be put into effect. October 1 was rumored to be the date when they would release this information. We still don't know. A lot of rumors have been going around as to what the new limits will be and when we will find out. I am done guessing. I just hope that they are as high as possible and that they happen soon.

This weekend will probably bring some kind of finalization to the mother of all bailouts. Let's pray that the guys we elected get it  right and are flexible enough to work together and do the right thing for every citizen in the greatest country in the world today (and ever in history.)

I still encounter people who have such a bad perception of Reverse Mortgages that they won't consider them, even when they are exactly what they need.

Two examples:

Yesterday I spoke to a gentleman who owned a three hundred thousand dollar co-op free and clear. He asked me about getting aHome Equity Line of Credit because he was having trouble paying his bills. His income was very low and his credit was poor. When I told him that he could only get a Reverse Mortgage line of credit, he would not listen to me at all.

Several months ago, I was speaking to a man whose wife had a debilitating illness. He felt that within a year or two, she would need full-time care costing about $3,000 a month. He was paying about $1,100 a month on his current mortgage and I could get him about $1,600 a month with a tenure payment (for as long as he lived in the home) with a Reverse Mortgage. The $2,700 cash flow increase was exactly what he needed. He decided to consult with his nephew who was vehemently against a Reverse Mortgage and compelled him to take a forward mortgage. Now he is making his monthly payments form the proceeds and will run out of money in a few years. He will almost certainly be forced out o fhis home at that point. A Reverse Mortgage has no payments , would have allowed him to satyin his home forever and never runs out.

I was on a training call yesterday with Liberty Reverse and they said that we may not get the mortgagee letter (that finally explains how the new laws will affect Reverse Mortgages specifically) from HUD until JANUARY! That would be a disaster. I 'm still hoping for the begining of October.