Christopher Shearer
By KAREN BLUMENTHAL
With mortgage rates holding below 5%, there has rarely been a better time to refinance your home. But with a one-two punch of tighter credit and falling prices roiling homeowners, the process has never been more difficult.
In the Sacramento, Calif., area, Michael McGee of Winchester McGee Financial estimates that one in four of his customers can't get a loan approved. In Plano, Texas, Rodney Anderson, a mortgage lender, says the rate sheet of mortgage programs he can offer customers has shrunk to two pages from 42 during the housing boom.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't investigate your options. Lowering your mortgage payment -- or at least locking in a long-term low rate -- can free up cash for other needs, such as repaying other debt or replenishing your retirement accounts, while reducing your financial stress.
In addition, if you're older than 40, shortening your mortgage term now could help leave you mortgage-free in retirement, reducing the income you'll need to generate from your battered 401(k).
But before you jump in, you should know that most single-family home loans today need to fall within Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac limits -- up to $417,000 in most places, and up to $729,750 in certain high-cost cities such as San Francisco and New York. "Jumbo" mortgages, or those larger than those limits, are still very hard to find.
Then you'll need two crucial and tough-to-acquire bits of information: your credit score and your home's current value. Those will determine whether you can refinance at all and how close you can get to the lowest rates available. Even then, you may find the process unusually long and unpleasant; some banks are taking up to 90 days to complete a refinancing.
If you got your current mortgage in the past few years, when less documentation was needed, you may be surprised by the financial colonoscopy that awaits you. You will need pay stubs, bank statements, brokerage statements and maybe tax returns to convince the lender that you can and will repay the loan. If you're self-employed, you may be asked for a profit-and-loss statement for this year; if you rely on bonus income, expect the lender to assume this year's bonus will be a lot less than last year's.
.Here's what you need to know before you start the application process:
What's your equity? Having some equity in your house is key to getting a new loan. If your current mortgage is less than 80% of the value of your home or less than 75% of your condominium or co-op, you should have refinancing options.
If your mortgage is between 80% and 105% of your home value, you're current on your payments and your loan was bought by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, you may be able to refinance under a two-month-old government program called "Making Home Affordable." Some kinks are still being worked out, and Fannie and Freddie have different requirements, so go to the program's Web site (www.MakingHomeAffordable.gov) or contact your mortgage servicer to see if you qualify.
Sometimes under this program, Fannie and Freddie will waive appraisals and other underwriting steps. And if you're refinancing a Veterans Administration or Federal Housing Administration loan, a new appraisal isn't needed.
Securing an appraisal. The trickier question: With home values sinking in some parts of the country, what's your home worth? Appraisers may use foreclosure sales or other distressed sales in your area to assess your home's value, not just conventional sales. And since the appraisal is for the benefit of the lender, not the consumer, you have little, if any, say in the process.
On May 1, a new Home Valuation Code of Conduct took effect, which is intended to keep mortgage brokers and others from influencing appraisal values. As a result, only lenders, not mortgage salesmen, may hire and pay appraisers, often using middlemen known as appraisal management companies.
The process is too new to know what the impact will be, but some mortgage lenders and brokers fret that national appraisal management companies may not know much about their areas. "We're getting calls from Indiana about a co-op on 17th Street," says Melissa Cohn, president of Manhattan Mortgage Co. in New York, one of the nation's largest mortgage originators.
If you're worried about what your home will be valued at, see if a friendly real-estate agent will provide you with recent similar sales in your neighborhood. Otherwise, you may have to fork over an appraisal fee -- $350 to $500, depending on where you live -- to find out if you have enough equity, even if you don't qualify for the loan.
Your credit score. Whether you get today's lowest rates will depend next on your credit score, a measure of how big a credit risk you may be. Borrowers who want the best rates generally need a FICO score -- based on a formula developed by Fair Isaac Corp. -- of 740 or above out of a possible 850. Those with FICO scores between 620 and 740 will pay either higher interest rates or more upfront "points" or fees, and those with scores below 620 may not be able to land a loan at all.
That seems simple enough until you realize that the nation's three main credit bureaus -- TransUnion, Experian and Equifax -- all calculate their FICO scores differently. So lenders typically pull all three scores and take the middle one, or a couple's lowest middle score.
Getting your number. Finding your actual scores is a bit like trying to read tarot cards. The Web site Credit Karma (www.creditkarma.com) offers a free credit score, but it's the TransUnion TransRisk score, not your FICO score. Experian (www.experian.com) sells consumers its Experian Plus scores but doesn't make its FICO score available directly to the public.
You can buy TransUnion and Equifax FICO scores from MyFico.com, but they may not be the same scores your lender sees. That's because you actually have multiple FICO scores, with different equations for auto loans, credit cards and mortgages.
All those scores, however, should be fairly consistent, giving you a good idea of whether your credit is good or great. If your scores are lower than you'd expect or if they vary widely, check your credit reports for errors. You can retrieve all three credit reports free of charge once a year at AnnualCreditReport.com.
If you don't meet the cutoffs, both Credit Karma and MyFico offer suggestions on how to improve your scores.
Refinancing may still make sense even if a weak score or other issues mean you have to pay extra points or a somewhat higher rate. Total up the points and other costs of your new loan, including closing costs, and divide it by your monthly mortgage savings. If you can recover your costs in two or three years -- and you plan to stay in your home longer than that -- you can save a lot of money over time.
Before you second that. If you have a second mortgage on the property or a home-equity credit line, you'll have one more hurdle. Some second lenders are refusing to stay in second place when you try to refinance your first mortgage. In that case, your options are to roll the two loans together, if you have enough equity; pay off your second loan; or find a new second lender who will allow you to refinance the first loan.
The condo hurdle. If you live in a condo or co-op, your building will also have to meet more-rigorous guidelines. Ms. Cohn of Manhattan Mortgage says lenders are tightening up on how much insurance a building must have, its occupancy rate and how much space in the building can be used for commercial purposes. She says she now makes sure buildings will be approved before moving forward with an application.
Shortening your loan. If your current loan is less than three or four years old, it may make sense to start over with a new 30-year mortgage. But otherwise, try to avoid going backward. If you last refinanced in the 2003 boom, for example, go for a 15-year or 20-year mortgage to cut your future interest payments and pay off your home quicker.
Whether to refinance an adjustable-rate loan that is currently fairly cheap depends almost entirely on how long you plan to own the home. If you think you will still be there in three to five years, when interest rates may be substantially higher, it may make a lot of sense to lock in at low rates now. Many brokers and lenders expect rates to stay low at least until the fall, but they also expect rates to jump quickly once they move up.
Finally, you should be able to lock in a current rate without an additional charge. But since the loan process may last longer than your 60-day rate guarantee, you may want to wait until closing is in sight to lock in.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Regulation Requiring Mortgage Brokers Personal Credit Reports to be Posted with Mortgage Broker License?
Call to Action - Loan Originator Credit Reports Made Public...Call Your Florida Senator Now!
The Florida House and Senate passed a bill (SB 2226) giving the Office of Financial Regulation permission to require individual credit reports to be part of Mortgage Loan Originator licensing and re-licensing requirements. By doing this the credit reports
automatically become part of the public records available for anyone to see.
There was an exemption bill that passed the House, however, its Senate companion (SB 2652) was never heard on the floor and the House bill (HB 7115) was never taken up by the Senate and died in Senate messinging. This bill would have made the credit reports obtained as part of the Mortgage Loan Originator licensing process exempt from public record requirements. Someone in the Florida Senate decided this bill would not be considered this year.
This bill (SB 2652) said that "Credit reports contain personal, financial, and
identifying information. Disclosure of these reports could cause harm to the persons who are the subjects of the credit reports by facilitating identity theft and other
crimes."
The Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers believes there is never a proper time to
expose credit reports; they should never be exposed to public records or to the public in any form.
Here is what you can do:
1. Call Jeff Atwater, President of the Florida Senate (850-487-5100). Ask President Atwater to bring SB 2652 back to the Senate next year without amendment.
2. Call your own Florida Senator and ask them why they feel it appropriate to ever pass a law including credit reports in the licensing process without also passing a law exempting them from public record requirements.
Ask your Senator to call President Atwater and ask him to sponsor SB 2652 next year.
Make your call today and point out your feelings about this horrible omission by the
Florida Senate. Make sure they know an estimated 500,000 florida residents, including loan originators, loan processors, underwriters and more, do not want their personal credit lives exposed to the public.
To find out who your Florida Senator is and to obtain contact information....
The Florida House and Senate passed a bill (SB 2226) giving the Office of Financial Regulation permission to require individual credit reports to be part of Mortgage Loan Originator licensing and re-licensing requirements. By doing this the credit reports
automatically become part of the public records available for anyone to see.
There was an exemption bill that passed the House, however, its Senate companion (SB 2652) was never heard on the floor and the House bill (HB 7115) was never taken up by the Senate and died in Senate messinging. This bill would have made the credit reports obtained as part of the Mortgage Loan Originator licensing process exempt from public record requirements. Someone in the Florida Senate decided this bill would not be considered this year.
This bill (SB 2652) said that "Credit reports contain personal, financial, and
identifying information. Disclosure of these reports could cause harm to the persons who are the subjects of the credit reports by facilitating identity theft and other
crimes."
The Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers believes there is never a proper time to
expose credit reports; they should never be exposed to public records or to the public in any form.
Here is what you can do:
1. Call Jeff Atwater, President of the Florida Senate (850-487-5100). Ask President Atwater to bring SB 2652 back to the Senate next year without amendment.
2. Call your own Florida Senator and ask them why they feel it appropriate to ever pass a law including credit reports in the licensing process without also passing a law exempting them from public record requirements.
Ask your Senator to call President Atwater and ask him to sponsor SB 2652 next year.
Make your call today and point out your feelings about this horrible omission by the
Florida Senate. Make sure they know an estimated 500,000 florida residents, including loan originators, loan processors, underwriters and more, do not want their personal credit lives exposed to the public.
To find out who your Florida Senator is and to obtain contact information....
Saturday, May 2, 2009
A "Short Sale" Doesnt Mean You are Home Free Christopher Shearer
Chrisotpher Shearer
By RUTH SIMON
Financially troubled borrowers may think that foreclosure or a short sale of their home means their mortgage woes are over.
Not necessarily.
Some homeowners are finding that when they sell their homes for less than the outstanding mortgages -- a so-called short sale -- their mortgage companies are going after them for some or all of the difference. Mortgage companies are also sometimes taking legal action to recover unpaid amounts after a foreclosure is completed.
In a growing number of cases, holders of mortgages or home-equity loans are requiring borrowers in short sales to sign a promissory note, which is a written promise to pay back a loan or debt. Real-estate agents and attorneys say they have seen an increase in requests for promissory notes as mortgage companies look to short sales as an alternative to foreclosure.
In many states, lenders have always had the right to pursue former homeowners for unpaid mortgage debt. Yet until recently, most borrowers who ran into trouble were able to refinance or sell their homes and pay off their loans. Now, falling home prices are widening the gap between home values and mortgage balances, and the number of homeowners who can't make their mortgage payments is rising as the economy has weakened. More than 3.8 million homes will be lost in 2009 and 2010 because borrowers can't make their mortgage payments, according to forecasts from Moody's Economy.com.
Some borrowers are surprised to find themselves on the hook. Jodie Byrd sold her home in the Los Angeles area in a short sale last summer after her husband lost his job and the couple realized they wouldn't be able to make their mortgage payments. The sale price covered the $685,000 mortgage, but their lender, Washington Mutual Co., then began pursuing them for the $21,600 balance on their second mortgage.
Ms. Byrd says a clause in their contract gave Washington Mutual the right to pursue the debt, but adds that her real-estate agent said that wasn't likely to happen. The couple eventually settled the claim for $4,000.
A spokesman for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which acquired Washington Mutual last year, says it's the company's policy not to comment on individual cases. Speaking generally, he says, "a short sale may resolve the first mortgage, but the second mortgage ... would be a separate negotiation with the lender or servicer."
Some experts say that mortgage companies may pursue leftover debt, or "deficiencies," in greater numbers as the housing market settles. Lenders are "doing everything possible to work with their borrowers and trying to bring stability back to the lending and real-estate market," says Marc Ben-Ezra, an attorney in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., who represents mortgage companies in foreclosures. "However, the ability to get a deficiency judgment is a valuable right that I think lenders will pursue aggressively in the future as the market stabilizes."
One-Year Moratorium
HSBC Finance, part of the North America unit of HSBC Holdings PLC, has implemented a one-year moratorium on the collection of deficiency balances for short sales and foreclosures that occur after April 1, "given the current economic environment," a company spokeswoman says.
Other mortgage servicers say their actions are often dictated by their contracts with investors or mortgage insurers. Bank of America Corp., for example, will "attempt to seek a promissory note whenever it is feasible" in a short sale "in the interest of protecting investors and shareholders from the losses," a spokeswoman says. In the case of a foreclosure, the investor or insurer "is generally the one who pursues the deficiency, but we do ourselves on some-bank-owned assets," she says.
Not every troubled borrower is hit with such a claim. Often, mortgage companies don't go after borrowers for unpaid amounts either because state laws prohibit or limit such actions or the cost outweighs the potential return. Borrowers subject to a deficiency may also elect to file for bankruptcy in an effort to have the debt discharged.
How a borrower is treated can depend on mortgage company policy, the size of the unpaid debt, whether the borrower has a job or other assets, or whether the home was bought as an investment. "If there isn't a financial hardship ... that's where the investor or mortgage insurer will go after the homeowner for more," says David Knight, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo & Co.'s home-mortgage unit.
A PMI Group Inc. spokesman says the mortgage insurer "primarily target[s] borrowers who are not experiencing hardship -- but those who simply elected to walk away from the property due to its decline in value."
Promissory Notes
Still, the number of short-sale agreements that are made with strings attached is increasing. In the past month and a half, "every short sale I have has had a promissory note or gives the lender the right to collect a deficiency," says Pamela Simmons, an attorney in Soquel, Calif., who represents financially troubled homeowners. Often, the terms are buried in the sale contract, she says.
Regina Rivard, a real-estate consultant in Apollo Beach, Fla., has completed 22 short sales in the past six months. In half of them, the holder of the first or second mortgage required that the borrower sign a promissory note or retained the right to pursue the deficiency. The amounts borrowers were obliged to pay ranged from a few thousand dollars to as much as $100,000, she says.
Some borrowers are balking. Mack Ransom, a mortgage broker in Ashland, Ore., recently brought Countrywide Financial Corp. a short-sale offer for $279,000 -- well below the roughly $415,000 he owes on his two mortgages. Countrywide countered that it would accept a $310,000 bid, provided Mr. Ransom signed a $48,000 promissory note, he says. Mr. Ransom rejected that offer and is pursuing a different short sale.
"I would take the foreclosure and the credit hit over that," he says. A spokeswoman for Bank of America, which acquired Countrywide last year, declined to comment on a specific case, but said: "The company will ask the borrower to sign a promissory note during the short-sale process if dictated by investor guidelines."
Going to Court
Other borrowers who have already gone through foreclosure are being taken to court by mortgage companies for unpaid debt, though such actions are still relatively uncommon. In Lee County, Fla., deficiency actions have increased in the past six months, with most filed by holders of second mortgages, says Charlie Green, clerk of Lee County Circuit Court. "The sale of the property was not enough to cover the total amount that was owed on the note or notes," says Mr. Green, who recently began tracking such filings in response to the increase.
Dunstant King, a cab driver in Boston, refinanced his mortgage in 2007, thinking it would save him money. Instead, his payments increased as the economy slowed. In January, Mr. King, who had a $290,400 mortgage and a $72,600 home-equity loan, lost his home to foreclosure. In February, a lawsuit seeking $92,000 was filed in Suffolk County, Mass., Superior Court on behalf of the loan pool that holds the second mortgage, according to court records.
"I don't have the money to pay them," says Mr. King. "Business is really bad." His attorney, David Dineen of Greater Boston Legal Services, says, "We believe Mr. King has legal defenses" to avoid that debt.
A spokesman for Deutsche Bank AG, the trustee for the loan pool, says that the decision to file the lawsuit was made by the mortgage-servicing company, Franklin Credit Management Corp. Franklin executives did not respond to requests for comment.
Blake Brewer, an attorney in Independence, Ohio, is currently representing a borrower who completed a short sale with the approval of his lender, National City Corp. The following year, Mr. Brewer's client was sued for the $65,000 loan balance, plus accrued interest, on his home-equity line of credit. The borrower "fully believed National City understood they weren't going to get paid," says Mr. Brewer.
A spokesman for PNC Corp., which acquired National City late last year, said the company's policy is not to comment on pending litigation.
■Write to Ruth Simon at ruth.simon@wsj.com
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D1
By RUTH SIMON
Financially troubled borrowers may think that foreclosure or a short sale of their home means their mortgage woes are over.
Not necessarily.
Some homeowners are finding that when they sell their homes for less than the outstanding mortgages -- a so-called short sale -- their mortgage companies are going after them for some or all of the difference. Mortgage companies are also sometimes taking legal action to recover unpaid amounts after a foreclosure is completed.
In a growing number of cases, holders of mortgages or home-equity loans are requiring borrowers in short sales to sign a promissory note, which is a written promise to pay back a loan or debt. Real-estate agents and attorneys say they have seen an increase in requests for promissory notes as mortgage companies look to short sales as an alternative to foreclosure.
In many states, lenders have always had the right to pursue former homeowners for unpaid mortgage debt. Yet until recently, most borrowers who ran into trouble were able to refinance or sell their homes and pay off their loans. Now, falling home prices are widening the gap between home values and mortgage balances, and the number of homeowners who can't make their mortgage payments is rising as the economy has weakened. More than 3.8 million homes will be lost in 2009 and 2010 because borrowers can't make their mortgage payments, according to forecasts from Moody's Economy.com.
Some borrowers are surprised to find themselves on the hook. Jodie Byrd sold her home in the Los Angeles area in a short sale last summer after her husband lost his job and the couple realized they wouldn't be able to make their mortgage payments. The sale price covered the $685,000 mortgage, but their lender, Washington Mutual Co., then began pursuing them for the $21,600 balance on their second mortgage.
Ms. Byrd says a clause in their contract gave Washington Mutual the right to pursue the debt, but adds that her real-estate agent said that wasn't likely to happen. The couple eventually settled the claim for $4,000.
A spokesman for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which acquired Washington Mutual last year, says it's the company's policy not to comment on individual cases. Speaking generally, he says, "a short sale may resolve the first mortgage, but the second mortgage ... would be a separate negotiation with the lender or servicer."
Some experts say that mortgage companies may pursue leftover debt, or "deficiencies," in greater numbers as the housing market settles. Lenders are "doing everything possible to work with their borrowers and trying to bring stability back to the lending and real-estate market," says Marc Ben-Ezra, an attorney in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., who represents mortgage companies in foreclosures. "However, the ability to get a deficiency judgment is a valuable right that I think lenders will pursue aggressively in the future as the market stabilizes."
One-Year Moratorium
HSBC Finance, part of the North America unit of HSBC Holdings PLC, has implemented a one-year moratorium on the collection of deficiency balances for short sales and foreclosures that occur after April 1, "given the current economic environment," a company spokeswoman says.
Other mortgage servicers say their actions are often dictated by their contracts with investors or mortgage insurers. Bank of America Corp., for example, will "attempt to seek a promissory note whenever it is feasible" in a short sale "in the interest of protecting investors and shareholders from the losses," a spokeswoman says. In the case of a foreclosure, the investor or insurer "is generally the one who pursues the deficiency, but we do ourselves on some-bank-owned assets," she says.
Not every troubled borrower is hit with such a claim. Often, mortgage companies don't go after borrowers for unpaid amounts either because state laws prohibit or limit such actions or the cost outweighs the potential return. Borrowers subject to a deficiency may also elect to file for bankruptcy in an effort to have the debt discharged.
How a borrower is treated can depend on mortgage company policy, the size of the unpaid debt, whether the borrower has a job or other assets, or whether the home was bought as an investment. "If there isn't a financial hardship ... that's where the investor or mortgage insurer will go after the homeowner for more," says David Knight, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo & Co.'s home-mortgage unit.
A PMI Group Inc. spokesman says the mortgage insurer "primarily target[s] borrowers who are not experiencing hardship -- but those who simply elected to walk away from the property due to its decline in value."
Promissory Notes
Still, the number of short-sale agreements that are made with strings attached is increasing. In the past month and a half, "every short sale I have has had a promissory note or gives the lender the right to collect a deficiency," says Pamela Simmons, an attorney in Soquel, Calif., who represents financially troubled homeowners. Often, the terms are buried in the sale contract, she says.
Regina Rivard, a real-estate consultant in Apollo Beach, Fla., has completed 22 short sales in the past six months. In half of them, the holder of the first or second mortgage required that the borrower sign a promissory note or retained the right to pursue the deficiency. The amounts borrowers were obliged to pay ranged from a few thousand dollars to as much as $100,000, she says.
Some borrowers are balking. Mack Ransom, a mortgage broker in Ashland, Ore., recently brought Countrywide Financial Corp. a short-sale offer for $279,000 -- well below the roughly $415,000 he owes on his two mortgages. Countrywide countered that it would accept a $310,000 bid, provided Mr. Ransom signed a $48,000 promissory note, he says. Mr. Ransom rejected that offer and is pursuing a different short sale.
"I would take the foreclosure and the credit hit over that," he says. A spokeswoman for Bank of America, which acquired Countrywide last year, declined to comment on a specific case, but said: "The company will ask the borrower to sign a promissory note during the short-sale process if dictated by investor guidelines."
Going to Court
Other borrowers who have already gone through foreclosure are being taken to court by mortgage companies for unpaid debt, though such actions are still relatively uncommon. In Lee County, Fla., deficiency actions have increased in the past six months, with most filed by holders of second mortgages, says Charlie Green, clerk of Lee County Circuit Court. "The sale of the property was not enough to cover the total amount that was owed on the note or notes," says Mr. Green, who recently began tracking such filings in response to the increase.
Dunstant King, a cab driver in Boston, refinanced his mortgage in 2007, thinking it would save him money. Instead, his payments increased as the economy slowed. In January, Mr. King, who had a $290,400 mortgage and a $72,600 home-equity loan, lost his home to foreclosure. In February, a lawsuit seeking $92,000 was filed in Suffolk County, Mass., Superior Court on behalf of the loan pool that holds the second mortgage, according to court records.
"I don't have the money to pay them," says Mr. King. "Business is really bad." His attorney, David Dineen of Greater Boston Legal Services, says, "We believe Mr. King has legal defenses" to avoid that debt.
A spokesman for Deutsche Bank AG, the trustee for the loan pool, says that the decision to file the lawsuit was made by the mortgage-servicing company, Franklin Credit Management Corp. Franklin executives did not respond to requests for comment.
Blake Brewer, an attorney in Independence, Ohio, is currently representing a borrower who completed a short sale with the approval of his lender, National City Corp. The following year, Mr. Brewer's client was sued for the $65,000 loan balance, plus accrued interest, on his home-equity line of credit. The borrower "fully believed National City understood they weren't going to get paid," says Mr. Brewer.
A spokesman for PNC Corp., which acquired National City late last year, said the company's policy is not to comment on pending litigation.
■Write to Ruth Simon at ruth.simon@wsj.com
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D1
Jordan Christopher Shearer "A Separation"
Thinking of my son Jordan Christopher Shearer who lives in Austin, Tx, I read this and it so described how I feel and how much I love and miss my son.
A Separation
by James B. Smith
I speak of a bond,
Knowing in my heart it must be.
Yet,
Never will I feel this bond,
This I fear.
I am older age now,
With greater understanding.
Yet,
I know,
No matter how great my success,
My success in life,
This void can only be filled by one.
He left with words,
Words,
Words reflecting someone else's view.
Yet,
Not once,
Reflecting on what had come to pass.
A colored view perhaps,
A view none the less,
One to allow him to move on,
Move on from the past.
The scars,
As if canyons were opened.
And now,
Time acts as the wind and rain,
Constantly exposing the earth,
Beneath her covered surface.
Yet,
While we could not move enough mountains,
So, as to fill these canyons,
My scars,
My pain,
Might be filled,
By the simplest of things.
A warm embrace,
Perhaps more than one.
A touch,
A touch to say I am O.K.
A look,
A look to say,
Maybe,
Just maybe,
I am the father,
The father Jordan always wanted.
And finally,
A tear,
As if to say,
Just how much,
How much I really was missed,
And maybe even needed,
Needed at those many moments of despair.
For I know,
It is because of him,
Because of him I am here,
And to think that life could truly be,
As one alone,
Is to be a fool.
It is said,
Said that life begins,
Alone,
And that life ends,
Alone.
Yet,
Now I know,
Life is much to the contrary,
For I know,
That we could not exist without one another.
Yet,
I speak not of this,
For it is my being that cries,
My soul that weeps,
It is my soul,
My soul that can never be complete,
Without this,
The love,
The love of both him and her.
And to think,
To think I may never know,
I may never know this completeness.
Yet,
I will always love you,
I love you Jordan Christopher Shearer
A Separation
by James B. Smith
I speak of a bond,
Knowing in my heart it must be.
Yet,
Never will I feel this bond,
This I fear.
I am older age now,
With greater understanding.
Yet,
I know,
No matter how great my success,
My success in life,
This void can only be filled by one.
He left with words,
Words,
Words reflecting someone else's view.
Yet,
Not once,
Reflecting on what had come to pass.
A colored view perhaps,
A view none the less,
One to allow him to move on,
Move on from the past.
The scars,
As if canyons were opened.
And now,
Time acts as the wind and rain,
Constantly exposing the earth,
Beneath her covered surface.
Yet,
While we could not move enough mountains,
So, as to fill these canyons,
My scars,
My pain,
Might be filled,
By the simplest of things.
A warm embrace,
Perhaps more than one.
A touch,
A touch to say I am O.K.
A look,
A look to say,
Maybe,
Just maybe,
I am the father,
The father Jordan always wanted.
And finally,
A tear,
As if to say,
Just how much,
How much I really was missed,
And maybe even needed,
Needed at those many moments of despair.
For I know,
It is because of him,
Because of him I am here,
And to think that life could truly be,
As one alone,
Is to be a fool.
It is said,
Said that life begins,
Alone,
And that life ends,
Alone.
Yet,
Now I know,
Life is much to the contrary,
For I know,
That we could not exist without one another.
Yet,
I speak not of this,
For it is my being that cries,
My soul that weeps,
It is my soul,
My soul that can never be complete,
Without this,
The love,
The love of both him and her.
And to think,
To think I may never know,
I may never know this completeness.
Yet,
I will always love you,
I love you Jordan Christopher Shearer
Jordan Christopher Shearer "It is fatherhood that Makes Childhood Possible"
Christopher Shearer
I miss my son Jordan Christopher Shearer and as I read this article I was thinking how much I love and miss him.
The Case for Father Custody
It is fatherhood that makes childhood possible.
by Daniel Amneus
A judge will try a divorce case in the morning and place the children in the mother's custody. He will try a criminal case in the afternoon and send a man to prison for robbing a liquor store. The chances are three out of four that the criminal he sends to prison grew up in a female headed household just like the one he himself created that morning when he tried the divorce case.[1] He can't see any connection between the two cases. The time lag prevents him: the kids he placed in the mother's custody were toddlers and the criminal he sent to prison was in his teens or twenties. Toddlers don't rob liquor stores.
Besides, most fatherless boys don't grow up to rob liquor stores and most fatherless girls don't grow up to breed illegitimate children. Therefore what? Therefore the legal policy of giving custody to mothers is OK? Therefore we can ignore the increased probability that fatherlessness will create delinquency?
This is the "safe drunk driver argument." Most drunk drivers don't get in accidents. They get home safely and sleep it off. Therefore drunk driving is OK.
It's not OK. And exiling fathers from families is not OK. The fact that will not go away is stated by sociologist David Popenoe in his recent book Life Without Father:
The negative consequences of fatherlessness are all around us. They affect children, women, and men. Evidence indicating damage to children has accumulated in near tidal-wave proportions. Fatherless children experience significantly more physical, emotional, and behavioral problems than do children growing up in intact families.
Why do Judges routinely award custody of children to mothers when they try a divorce case? Two reasons. The first is that motherhood is more solidly based in biology. Motherhood is a biological fact, as Margaret Mead says, fatherhood merely a social invention. Mammals and motherhood originated two hundred million years ago, when the dinosaurs were young. Fatherhood in the sense of major male participation in reproduction is, from the point of view of evolution, a recent development. Fatherhood in the sense of male headship of the stable patriarchal families which make civilization possible is only about five thousand years old, as feminist Dr. Gerda Lerner has shown in her book The Creation of Patriarchy. Prior to the Patriarchal Revolution human reproduction followed the ghetto pattern, where the mother was the primary parent, and the father was a mere boyfriend who could be discarded when the mother got tired of him.
The second reason why judges favor mother custody is their recognition that women and children are dependent creatures. This was formerly understood to mean they needed husbands and fathers. But husbands and fathers require authority if they are to function as providers and protectors. ("He shall rule over thee," God says to Eve, Genesis 3:16.) Without the sexual loyalty of wives there can be no family. Patriarchal civilization depends on female chastity. Without it men cannot have families and children cannot have fathers.
This is the hitch, the reason we have a feminist revolution: Females dislike sexual regulation. Feminists say "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," "A woman has a sacred right to control her own sexuality," "End human sacrifice! Don't get married!" Women's primary object, according to feminist Anne Donchin, is to create a society in which "women can shape their reproductive experiences to further ends of their own choosing."
This is the feminist program. It's succeeding. Marriage is becoming meaningless. "Family law," says Brenda Hoggett, former British law commissioner responsible for family law,
no longer makes any attempt to buttress the stability of marriage or any other union. It has adopted principles for the protection of children and dependent spouses which could be made equally applicable to the unmarried. In such circumstances, the piecemeal erosion of the distinction between marriage and non-married cohabitation may be expected to continue. Logically we have already reached a point at which, rather than discussing which remedies should now be extended to the unmarried, we should be considering whether the legal institution of marriage continues to serve any useful purpose.
The emphasized sentence means marriage no longer grants the husband any rights whatever--only the obligation of giving up his children and accepting slavery--laboring for the benefit of another person, his ex-wife. (Or equally his ex-girlfriend, since marriage makes no difference.) "The courts have abandoned," says Ms. Hoggett,
the concept of breach of matrimonial obligations--and their powers of adjustment of property interests in the long term are now so extensive that ordering one spouse from his own home no longer seems so drastic. Far from ordering spouses to stay together, courts are increasingly able and willing to help them separate.
This is the female kinship system, matriarchy, the condition of the ghettos--made tolerable for the female by the male's acceptance of slavery.
A Georgia judge named Robert Noland shows how the legal system thinks: "I ain't never seen a calf following a bull. They always follow the cow. So I always give custody to the mammas." The reason Judge Noland never saw a calf following a bull is that cattle don't live in two-parent households. If we want to live like cattle, Judge Noland has the right idea. But human beings differ from cattle and the difference is created by fathers.
A green turtle--a reptile--begins its existence as an egg and never learns it has a mother or a father. Its mother's participation in its existence consists of conceiving and gestating it and burying the resulting egg in the sand. After remaining there and maturing awhile, it emerges from the sand and waddles down to the water to find a meal--or to become a meal for some other creature. It is self contained and lives on its own inherited resources or it dies.
Mammals came into existence during the Age of Reptiles. Mammalian mothers cherish their young, feed them from their own body, protect them, educate them. If you have a cat with kittens you can witness how mammalian motherhood works--how meaningful motherhood is, and how irrelevant merely biological fatherhood is once the father has performed his minuscule sexual function. Motherhood enables the kitten to have an infancy. This is the relationship which Judge Noland understands and seeks to preserve by awarding custody to mothers.
The kitten has no childhood. After a rather short period of helpless infancy, the kitten is almost suddenly a mature adult capable of fending for itself like the baby turtle after it emerges from its egg.
It was John Fiske, the nineteenth century American historian and philosopher, who pointed out what made human beings special-- and more successful than other mammals: the prolongation not only of infancy, but the creation of a whole additional era of life, childhood, something unknown in any other species--so that human children can enjoy an enormously long period during which they are protected, cherished, educable, playful, exploratory, sensitive and aware, a period during which they can reach out and learn about and come to love the world they live in.
It is fatherhood which makes childhood possible. It is father absence which creates ghettos and gangs and messed-up kids--boys trying to find their identity through violence, girls trying to find their identity through sexual promiscuity, which will lead to the violence of the next generation. They need real fathers, "sociological fathers," not mere studs interested in sharing a one- night stand with Mom.
Sociological fatherhood is real fatherhood, as Margaret Mead says, "a social invention." In the ghettos the biological fathers are seldom sociological fathers. They aren't good for much because Mom's sexual disloyalty denies them the role of sociological fatherhood. Lawmakers and politicians don't understand what Margaret Mead tells them, that fatherhood is a social invention, that it must be created and maintained by society. They suppose, as Judge Robert Noland supposes, that humans can live like cattle, without fathers.
Until lawmakers and judges see that they must support the father's role because it is the weak link in the family we will have more matriarchy--along with its familiar accompaniments: crime, educational failure, illegitimacy, teen suicide, gangs and the rest.
Notes:
1. 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home Fulton Co. Georgia Jail Populations, Texas Dept. of Corrections, 1992. Statistics from other states show similar results.
From: http://www.fathermag.com/9607/father-custody/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read Dan Amneus' book, The Case for Father Custody
Copyright © 1996 - 2002,
Fathering Enterprises. All rights reserved.
I miss my son Jordan Christopher Shearer and as I read this article I was thinking how much I love and miss him.
The Case for Father Custody
It is fatherhood that makes childhood possible.
by Daniel Amneus
A judge will try a divorce case in the morning and place the children in the mother's custody. He will try a criminal case in the afternoon and send a man to prison for robbing a liquor store. The chances are three out of four that the criminal he sends to prison grew up in a female headed household just like the one he himself created that morning when he tried the divorce case.[1] He can't see any connection between the two cases. The time lag prevents him: the kids he placed in the mother's custody were toddlers and the criminal he sent to prison was in his teens or twenties. Toddlers don't rob liquor stores.
Besides, most fatherless boys don't grow up to rob liquor stores and most fatherless girls don't grow up to breed illegitimate children. Therefore what? Therefore the legal policy of giving custody to mothers is OK? Therefore we can ignore the increased probability that fatherlessness will create delinquency?
This is the "safe drunk driver argument." Most drunk drivers don't get in accidents. They get home safely and sleep it off. Therefore drunk driving is OK.
It's not OK. And exiling fathers from families is not OK. The fact that will not go away is stated by sociologist David Popenoe in his recent book Life Without Father:
The negative consequences of fatherlessness are all around us. They affect children, women, and men. Evidence indicating damage to children has accumulated in near tidal-wave proportions. Fatherless children experience significantly more physical, emotional, and behavioral problems than do children growing up in intact families.
Why do Judges routinely award custody of children to mothers when they try a divorce case? Two reasons. The first is that motherhood is more solidly based in biology. Motherhood is a biological fact, as Margaret Mead says, fatherhood merely a social invention. Mammals and motherhood originated two hundred million years ago, when the dinosaurs were young. Fatherhood in the sense of major male participation in reproduction is, from the point of view of evolution, a recent development. Fatherhood in the sense of male headship of the stable patriarchal families which make civilization possible is only about five thousand years old, as feminist Dr. Gerda Lerner has shown in her book The Creation of Patriarchy. Prior to the Patriarchal Revolution human reproduction followed the ghetto pattern, where the mother was the primary parent, and the father was a mere boyfriend who could be discarded when the mother got tired of him.
The second reason why judges favor mother custody is their recognition that women and children are dependent creatures. This was formerly understood to mean they needed husbands and fathers. But husbands and fathers require authority if they are to function as providers and protectors. ("He shall rule over thee," God says to Eve, Genesis 3:16.) Without the sexual loyalty of wives there can be no family. Patriarchal civilization depends on female chastity. Without it men cannot have families and children cannot have fathers.
This is the hitch, the reason we have a feminist revolution: Females dislike sexual regulation. Feminists say "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," "A woman has a sacred right to control her own sexuality," "End human sacrifice! Don't get married!" Women's primary object, according to feminist Anne Donchin, is to create a society in which "women can shape their reproductive experiences to further ends of their own choosing."
This is the feminist program. It's succeeding. Marriage is becoming meaningless. "Family law," says Brenda Hoggett, former British law commissioner responsible for family law,
no longer makes any attempt to buttress the stability of marriage or any other union. It has adopted principles for the protection of children and dependent spouses which could be made equally applicable to the unmarried. In such circumstances, the piecemeal erosion of the distinction between marriage and non-married cohabitation may be expected to continue. Logically we have already reached a point at which, rather than discussing which remedies should now be extended to the unmarried, we should be considering whether the legal institution of marriage continues to serve any useful purpose.
The emphasized sentence means marriage no longer grants the husband any rights whatever--only the obligation of giving up his children and accepting slavery--laboring for the benefit of another person, his ex-wife. (Or equally his ex-girlfriend, since marriage makes no difference.) "The courts have abandoned," says Ms. Hoggett,
the concept of breach of matrimonial obligations--and their powers of adjustment of property interests in the long term are now so extensive that ordering one spouse from his own home no longer seems so drastic. Far from ordering spouses to stay together, courts are increasingly able and willing to help them separate.
This is the female kinship system, matriarchy, the condition of the ghettos--made tolerable for the female by the male's acceptance of slavery.
A Georgia judge named Robert Noland shows how the legal system thinks: "I ain't never seen a calf following a bull. They always follow the cow. So I always give custody to the mammas." The reason Judge Noland never saw a calf following a bull is that cattle don't live in two-parent households. If we want to live like cattle, Judge Noland has the right idea. But human beings differ from cattle and the difference is created by fathers.
A green turtle--a reptile--begins its existence as an egg and never learns it has a mother or a father. Its mother's participation in its existence consists of conceiving and gestating it and burying the resulting egg in the sand. After remaining there and maturing awhile, it emerges from the sand and waddles down to the water to find a meal--or to become a meal for some other creature. It is self contained and lives on its own inherited resources or it dies.
Mammals came into existence during the Age of Reptiles. Mammalian mothers cherish their young, feed them from their own body, protect them, educate them. If you have a cat with kittens you can witness how mammalian motherhood works--how meaningful motherhood is, and how irrelevant merely biological fatherhood is once the father has performed his minuscule sexual function. Motherhood enables the kitten to have an infancy. This is the relationship which Judge Noland understands and seeks to preserve by awarding custody to mothers.
The kitten has no childhood. After a rather short period of helpless infancy, the kitten is almost suddenly a mature adult capable of fending for itself like the baby turtle after it emerges from its egg.
It was John Fiske, the nineteenth century American historian and philosopher, who pointed out what made human beings special-- and more successful than other mammals: the prolongation not only of infancy, but the creation of a whole additional era of life, childhood, something unknown in any other species--so that human children can enjoy an enormously long period during which they are protected, cherished, educable, playful, exploratory, sensitive and aware, a period during which they can reach out and learn about and come to love the world they live in.
It is fatherhood which makes childhood possible. It is father absence which creates ghettos and gangs and messed-up kids--boys trying to find their identity through violence, girls trying to find their identity through sexual promiscuity, which will lead to the violence of the next generation. They need real fathers, "sociological fathers," not mere studs interested in sharing a one- night stand with Mom.
Sociological fatherhood is real fatherhood, as Margaret Mead says, "a social invention." In the ghettos the biological fathers are seldom sociological fathers. They aren't good for much because Mom's sexual disloyalty denies them the role of sociological fatherhood. Lawmakers and politicians don't understand what Margaret Mead tells them, that fatherhood is a social invention, that it must be created and maintained by society. They suppose, as Judge Robert Noland supposes, that humans can live like cattle, without fathers.
Until lawmakers and judges see that they must support the father's role because it is the weak link in the family we will have more matriarchy--along with its familiar accompaniments: crime, educational failure, illegitimacy, teen suicide, gangs and the rest.
Notes:
1. 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home Fulton Co. Georgia Jail Populations, Texas Dept. of Corrections, 1992. Statistics from other states show similar results.
From: http://www.fathermag.com/9607/father-custody/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read Dan Amneus' book, The Case for Father Custody
Copyright © 1996 - 2002,
Fathering Enterprises. All rights reserved.
4.78% Rates On 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Lowest Since Started Tracking Rates !!! From Christopher Shearer
Christopher Shearer
By David Wessel
Mortgage rates continue to fall, a boon to homeowners eager to refinance mortgages and to those courageous enough to ponder buying new houses. And, in an unusual development, rates on adjustable rate mortgages exceed those on 30-year fixed-rate loans, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac.
Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4.78% in the week ended April 30, matching the one set in the week ended April that was the lowest since mortgage giant Freddie Mac began tracking the rate in 1971. The comparable rate a year ago averaged 6.03%. The decline, in part, reflects the aggressive moves by the Federal Reserve to push down mortgage rates by buying mortgage-backed securities and lending to Freddie Mac and its sibling Fannie Mae.
Freddie Mac said the fixed rate on 15-year mortgages averaged 4.48%, down from 5.62% a year ago and the lowest level since Freddie Mac began tracking this rate in August 1991.
"Although long-term mortgage rates eased slightly this week, ARM rates remain elevated relative to those fixed-rate mortgages," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "For instance, interest rates for 1-year ARMs exceeded those for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages over the last two weeks; this is the first time this has happened since Freddie Mac began collecting data for ARMs in January 1984. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.82% this week, down from last week when it averaged 4.91%. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.29%
Freddie Mac notes that house prices rose for the second consecutive month in February, the first back-to-back increase since April 2007, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. (Read a related post.) Among the nine Census divisions, six experienced positive gains in February, led by a monthly increase of 3.8% in the Pacific.
From Wall Street Journal 05-02-2009
By David Wessel
Mortgage rates continue to fall, a boon to homeowners eager to refinance mortgages and to those courageous enough to ponder buying new houses. And, in an unusual development, rates on adjustable rate mortgages exceed those on 30-year fixed-rate loans, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac.
Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4.78% in the week ended April 30, matching the one set in the week ended April that was the lowest since mortgage giant Freddie Mac began tracking the rate in 1971. The comparable rate a year ago averaged 6.03%. The decline, in part, reflects the aggressive moves by the Federal Reserve to push down mortgage rates by buying mortgage-backed securities and lending to Freddie Mac and its sibling Fannie Mae.
Freddie Mac said the fixed rate on 15-year mortgages averaged 4.48%, down from 5.62% a year ago and the lowest level since Freddie Mac began tracking this rate in August 1991.
"Although long-term mortgage rates eased slightly this week, ARM rates remain elevated relative to those fixed-rate mortgages," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "For instance, interest rates for 1-year ARMs exceeded those for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages over the last two weeks; this is the first time this has happened since Freddie Mac began collecting data for ARMs in January 1984. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.82% this week, down from last week when it averaged 4.91%. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.29%
Freddie Mac notes that house prices rose for the second consecutive month in February, the first back-to-back increase since April 2007, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. (Read a related post.) Among the nine Census divisions, six experienced positive gains in February, led by a monthly increase of 3.8% in the Pacific.
From Wall Street Journal 05-02-2009
Thinking of My Son Jordan Christopher Shearer from Christopher Shearer
Christopher Shearer
I love this song by Phil Collins made me think of my son I love so much, Jordan Christopher Shearer
Somewhere down the road, youre gonna find a place
It seems so far, but it never is
You wont need to stay, but you might lose your strength
On the way
Sometimes you may feel youre the only one
Cos all the things you thought were safe, now theyre gone
But you wont be alone, Ill be here to carry you along
Watching you til all your work is done
When you find your heart, youd better run with it
Cos when she comes along, she could be breaking it
No theres nothing wrong, youre learning to be strong
Dont look back
She may soon be gone, no dont look back
Shes not the only one, remember that
If your heart is beating fast, then you know shes right
If you dont know what to say, well, thats all right
You dont know what to do?
Remember she is just as scared as you
Dont be shy, even when it hurts to say
Remember, youre gonna get hurt someday, anyway
Then you must lift your head, keep it there
Remember what I said
Ill always be with you dont forget
Just look over your shoulder Ill be there.
If you look behind you, I will be there. I love you son.
I love this song by Phil Collins made me think of my son I love so much, Jordan Christopher Shearer
Somewhere down the road, youre gonna find a place
It seems so far, but it never is
You wont need to stay, but you might lose your strength
On the way
Sometimes you may feel youre the only one
Cos all the things you thought were safe, now theyre gone
But you wont be alone, Ill be here to carry you along
Watching you til all your work is done
When you find your heart, youd better run with it
Cos when she comes along, she could be breaking it
No theres nothing wrong, youre learning to be strong
Dont look back
She may soon be gone, no dont look back
Shes not the only one, remember that
If your heart is beating fast, then you know shes right
If you dont know what to say, well, thats all right
You dont know what to do?
Remember she is just as scared as you
Dont be shy, even when it hurts to say
Remember, youre gonna get hurt someday, anyway
Then you must lift your head, keep it there
Remember what I said
Ill always be with you dont forget
Just look over your shoulder Ill be there.
If you look behind you, I will be there. I love you son.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)