VA Loan Updates

Missouri announced that available funding to assist first time homebuyers in Missouri has surpassed totals not seen in 15 years. The $145 million allocated in 2007 has helped provide $300 million in home loans to about 3,000 first time homebuyers.

Throughout 2007 the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) provided the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC) with $145 million worth of tax exempt funding in 2007, the highest amount in the last fifteen years. MHDC used the $145 million with other funding sources to issue about $300 million in bonds. The funds helped provide $300 million in home loans during 2007. Most first time homebuyers also receive 3 percent down payment assistance.

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By the time he completed his four-year stint in the military three summers ago, Frank Wills had gotten used to taking orders, carrying a rifle and taking pictures of the dead as a combat photographer.

He knew how to be a Marine. He hadn’t a clue how a Marine becomes a college student.

Neither, it seemed, did anyone else on campus. Advisers at one school Wills attended gave him incorrect information. Officials at a second offered no help at all. Often, he says, he felt like “the new kid who didn’t fit in.”

The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill, helped turn a college education into a right of middle-class America. It covered the cost for millions of World War II veterans as compensation for having disrupted their lives to serve.

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Congressman Bob Filner of California, Chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, recently introduced a pair of bills to address the needs of veterans during the ongoing subprime mortgage market crisis.

“I am very pleased to offer these important pieces of legislation,” said Congressman Filner. “The current VA home loan program is irrelevant because fees for the loans are too high and equity requirements are overly restrictive. As a result, veterans are forced to turn to the commercial mortgage market, which is risky and volatile. Loan products in this market offer non-traditional features that have recently led to the rise in delinquency and foreclosures in the subprime market among the veteran population.”

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THE OFFICE of Personnel Management recently released a report showing a modest increase in the number of veterans working in the federal government.

OPM reported increases in both the number of veterans employed and new hires since fiscal 2005 began on Oct. 1, 2004.

The number of veterans in the federal work force increased by 1,711–from 456,254 in 2005 to 457,965 in 2006. The number of disabled veterans in the work force increased from 92,642 to 97,828 during the same time period.

The number of newly hired veterans increased from 48,257 to 50,108. This represented 22.1 percent of all new federal workers hired–the highest percentage in four years.

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In the Navy, Joe Venovich never questioned what the government told him.

But now in retirement, he wonders why the country is shafting him and other veterans with shortchanged and shortsighted medical coverage.

Venovich, 69, lives in Tremont. He went into the Navy in 1955 and was honorably discharged in 1959.

Now retired, Venovich has heart troubles, including atherosclerosis, or clogged arteries. Two years ago, he had quadruple-bypass surgery.

He has been doing all right but remains on medication. One is clopidogrel, sold under the brand name Plavix. His cardiologist prescribed Plavix to keep his arteries unclogged.

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What follows is an excerpt from Kansas Congressman Jerry Moran’s weekly column in The McPherson Sentinel:

IMPROVED BENEFITS

The House approved historic changes to modernize retirement and education benefits for National Guard and Reserve members as part of the annual policy and funding blueprint for the Department of Defense. Citizen soldiers from communities across Kansas are playing an increasingly critical role in our nation’s defense, from Iraq and Afghanistan to our country’s borders.

The 2008 National Defense Authorization Act reduces the age at which a member of the Guard and Reserve can draw retirement pay by three months for every 90 days of federal active duty service. This bill will enable members to retire as early as age 50.

The bill also includes two important changes to G.I. Bill education benefits. One, it allows Guard and Reserve members to use their educational benefits for 10 years after separation from service.

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A successful end to a years-long fight to expand the education benefits of military National Guard and reserve members who serve in wars will give the veterans up to 10 years after returning to civilian life to use the benefits

The House and Senate approved last week a compromise de-fense authorization bill that includes the extended timeline. Authorization bills do not require the president’s signature, but a funding bill that backs up the legislation will have to pass later.

Under current law, the military helps pay for the college educations of reservists and Guard members while they are active members, but not after they leave.

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The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee is focusing on how to use the veterans’ home loan program to help service members and veterans who risk losing their homes.

Reps. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., and Mike Michaud, D-Maine, introduced a bill Thursday that would greatly increase the maximum loan amount that the Department of Veterans Affairs guarantees. The bill, HR 4539, would raise the current $417,000 limit to a new maximum of $521,250.

Buyer, the former committee chairman, said the chief reason for the increase is that the $417,000 cap is so low that it precludes service members and veterans from using the program in some high-cost areas of the country.

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The recent .25% rate cut by the Federal Reserve on Monday the 11th of December 2007, has caused VA mortgage rates to increase. Most home owners will automatically assume that due to a Fed rate cut of any size, that interest rates on VA loans should follow suit and go lower also. This is very far from accurate. 

One of the biggest misconceptions veteran home owners usually have about the Federal Reserve and rate cuts is this:

1. If the Fed cuts rates then VA home loan rates will obviously go down.

This is very far from accurate. Hopefully this article will shed some light on why this is not normally the case and also assist VA home owners in making an educated decision in regards to refinancing or purchasing a VA loan.

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The two chief congressional advocates for improving Reserve GI Bill benefits declared a partial victory Wednesday for provisions included in a compromise defense policy bill.

Arkansas Democrats Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Rep. Vic Snyder, leading an effort to update National Guard and reserve benefits, said they were pleased the bill would allow drilling reservists who have been mobilized to use GI Bill benefits for up to 10 years after leaving the military.

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