As anticipated, the White House today unveiled some of the details on the negative-equity refi program trumpeted by the President in his State of the Union Address. Some of the most important risk parameters of the FHA program remain uncertain, but those the Administration suggested – 140 LTVs for unemployed borrowers based on no-doc loans – suggest that the FHA plans to take a flyer. Backed by big banks, taxpayers are presumed immune. For the GSEs, the plan is less exuberant, although the White House still asks Congress to bless it because, apparently, FHFA won’t.
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