Mortgage crisis hits home for troops, vets

Mortgage crisis hits home for troops, vets
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 29, 2007 20:12:40 EST

CHULA VISTA, Calif. — Air Force veteran Nellie Cooper thought she was following good advice when she refinanced her home’s mortgage with an adjustable-rate loan. For the self-employed real estate agent, it seemed smart.

But her mortgage payments ballooned while local property values dropped, sinking her prospects of refinancing into a more secure, fixed-rate loan. With lenders nationwide tightening eligibility rules, Cooper is finding few that are willing to refinance or rework the loan into something financially manageable for her.

“Nobody will finance 92 percent value of a house, and I am getting more in arrears,” Cooper, who is juggling three part-time jobs to keep her home, told a Nov. 27 public forum led by Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif. “I’m still … trying to see if I can do something with the lender.”

Cooper, who lives in Oceanside, Calif., found no help from the Department of Veterans Affairs: Except in very rare cases, VA does not refinance mortgages it didn’t sell. She didn’t buy the house through VA because she was told repeatedly she didn’t qualify and the paperwork was “too cumbersome.”

“I was dissuaded by many to take the conventional way” with bank-backed loans, she said.

Filner, who chairs the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, planned the field hearing on the sub-prime market and its effects on veterans.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_subprime_071129w/