Mortgages: Exploring the 15-Year Loan

(RAWRZ!)

Dear Dr. Don, We have two sons who are three and five years away from starting college. We don't anticipate them being eligible for much financial aid. We've saved up enough to fund their education for about two years, and we're looking for a plan to cover the rest.

With the looming debt ceiling pigfight consuming a lot of financial media bandwidth, some important stories are not getting the attention they warrant. One is on the hard fought and finally settled qualified mortgage rules just finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin in a new post describes how the new QM rules are a defacto usury law for the 21st century.

Bloomberg -- "Americans are digging themselves out of mortgage debt. Home equity in the first quarter rose to the highest level since 2008 as homeowners taking advantage of record-low borrowing costs to refinance their loans brought cash to the table to pay down principal.

Twice this month, Canada’s banking regulator has issued assurances it’s got its eye on the way banks are treating the hundreds of billions in mortgages they hold and it’s happy with what it’s seeing. That doesn’t happen often and it’s prompted some observers to question whether the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions is suddenly feeling pressure to reassure the world that — as far as it’s concerned — things are fine.

Under guise of helping homeowners, president Obama has finalized his plan to further aid banks. Please consider Obama's alleged Mortgage Relief Plan. The White House on Tuesday announced it was cutting the mortgage fees charged by the Federal Housing Administration’s refinancing program in another effort to help the languishing housing market recover.