Making Homes Affordable in Sacramento (or Delta County Colorado): How to Qualify for Obama's Housing Rescue Plan

At first blush, many Sacramento home owners may believe they do not qualify for the making home affordable housing rescue plan rolled out by President Obama, but I know who may, and I'll get to that. First, there are a ton of hoops to jump through. It involves sitting on the phone trying to get through to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The two of the three important qualifications for the refinance program are your loan must be owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and you must be current on your payments.

However, Sacramento home owners can save themselves a lot of grief in the first place by doing one simple thing: call your real estate agent. If you don't have a real estate agent, call a local Lyon Real Estate office -- we have 15 of them. Go to GoLyon.com and choose the office closest to you. Click on the link for agents and send an email. Or call the office number during business hours and ask to talk to the "agent on duty."

Why should you call a real estate agent? Because you need to find out how much your home is worth. Zillow isn't going to give it you. A seller called me yesterday about listing his home in Tahoe Park as a short sale. He thought it was worth $220,000, according to Zillow. Turned out his home wasn't in Tahoe Park, it's in Colonial Heights, and his $220,000 estimate of value is wrong. The market value of that home is closer to $60,000.

The making home affordable housing rescue plan is not designed to help Sacramento home owners who owe substantially more than market value. Which means you should first find out how much your home is worth by asking a real estate agent for an opinion of value. Many Sacramento home owners who are underwater are upside down by 50% or more. That's why some of those home owners are calling a Sacramento short sale agent and do not qualify for the making home affordable plan.

However, if your home is located in a neighborhood where values have remained pretty stable, you might qualify for a refinance that will lower your interest rate and lower your monthly payments, all at no cost to you. To get started, real estate agents can give you the value of your home for free, no charge. If you bought your home over the past 5 years, put down some cash -- as opposed to those 80/20 combo loans -- and live in one of the following neighborhoods, your home value may not have fallen below the threshold that will disqualify you for the making home affordable plan. Here are a few of those areas:

• Homes in Land Park
• Homes in Curtis Park
  
• Homes in East Sacramento
• Homes in Midtown Sacramento

You can also call me at 916.233.6759, and I can help you, too. My email is elizabeth at elizabethweintraub dot com. We're all in this recession together, and together we will emerge.

The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, coming June 2009.

Photo: Home in McKinley Park, East Sacramento, by Elizabeth Weintraub