President Barack Obama said Wednesday he’d save money if he refinanced the mortgage on his Chicago home, but he hasn’t jumped on current low interest rates because “when you’re president you have to be a little careful about these transactions.”
Obama didn’t say how much money he thought he and first lady Michelle Obama could save on their South Side Chicago home. In speeches about the housing market, he has said federal programs have helped millions of homeowners save an average of $3,000 by refinancing at lower rates.
Financial disclosure forms Obama released this year show an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year mortgage on his South Side Chicago home, which was valued at between $500,000 and $1 million. Bankrate.com says the current rate on a 30-year mortgage is 4.5 percent.
“I would probably benefit from refinancing now. I would save some money,” Obama said while answering questions submitted by users of Zillow, an online real estate database. “When you’re president you have to be a little careful about these transactions so we haven’t refinanced.”
The half-hour session conducted during the president’s visit to California focused exclusively on housing and, at times, had the feel of an advice show as Obama sympathized with questioners concerned about maintaining their home values or being stuck living in their parents’ homes because they can’t afford to rent an apartment.
The Zillow appearance followed Obama’s speech Tuesday in Phoenix, in which he proposed a broad overhaul of the nation’s mortgage finance system, including phasing out government-backed mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The president’s focus on housing is part of his summertime tour aimed at building public support for his economic proposals before fiscal fights with congressional Republicans in the fall.
Obama pledged in the Zillow interview to push Congress to pass his plan before the end of the year.
Before returning to Washington after two days on the West Coast to promote his housing proposals, Obama planned to meet with troops and their families at Camp Pendleton. Obama wanted to visit the sprawling Marine Corps base to thank them for serving the country, the White House said.
Separately Wednesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney disclosed that Obama dined Tuesday night at his Los Angeles hotel with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
7 Responses
Hmmm, I wonder what it is that he has to be careful about. I guess he’s as reckless with his own personal budget as he is with ours. I think he should be an example for the masses, not the King of America to whom saving money is for commoners.
No. 1: What he as president has to be careful about is getting any kind of a sweetheart offer from a bank looking to do a favor for someone with political power. Crooked politicians get bargain loans and other business bargains all the time. For example:
1. Arkansas First Lady Hillary Clinton, early in her husband Governor Clinton’s first or second term, somehow made a winning investment in cattle futures, in a market that is notoriously fixable by key broker/dealers in the market. Her trades were “pooled” with a number of other trades, some were winners, some were losers, and the broker/dealer had the power to match the buys and sells of the “pool” and allocate the winning matches to the governor’s wife.
2. Many members of Congress have gotten substantial mortgage loans on terms that were below market for the level of risk in the loans.
So, you can stop wondering and express admiration for the president’s restraint at not taking advantage of some opportunities that may be presented to him that would give the appearance of improper perquisites.
If I were in the president’s financial position, i.e., with several million dollars in liquid assets from the success of his pre-presidential books, and with lucrative prospects for books and speeches beginning in 2017 (no, he will not be impeached before then, or do a Palin-style resignation), I would not refinance the mortgage, I would pay it off. Your speculation of “recklessness” can only spring from a fundamental dislike of the man, who is nothing if not likable.
So he could ignore the Constitution everyday of his presidency which is illegal but he has to be “a little careful” about the legal things. What a clown! Sad thing is the media and the low information voters love this clown.
Professor nfgo3:
Your comments re: Barry who you characterize as “nothing if not likeable” are so absurd. Barry is a chicago street thug/organizer with a militant angry wife, a black supremisist minister, surrounded by jewish gangstas like rahm emmanuel, david axelrod et al. His economic policies have beena failure, obamacare will bankrupt the country, the deficit is $17 trillion, his foreign policy is abyssmal he’s always on wrong side of a dispute be it in israel or egypt, etc. His quick condemnation of zimmerman and the boston police in henry louis gates incidient were both foolish aand racially divisive while his silence on the bengazi and major nidal hasan was deafening. And you in your upper west side-naivete find this man “nothing if not likeable?”
No. 4: First of all, I am not a professor. If you intend that as an insult, I forgive you. And not just because it is a particularly ineffective insult, but because Hashem wants us to be forgiving.
Secondly, I do not now nor have I ever resided on the upper west side of anything. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I would not expect you to be especially informed about me. But your opinions of the president, not to mention his “militant angry wife”, are so disconnected from reality that even if you were informed about me, I would not expect you to form sound, reasoned opinions.
Prof nfgo3,
The reason I called you “professor” is because you were subjecting the ywn audience to typical liberal drivel we hear in our universities. And while you may not be from UWS you definitely have UWS naivete. Don’t forget: liberalism is a mental disorder.
To commenter no. 6: If your comment no. 6 was your attempt to get me to withdraw my forgiveness of you in my comment no. 5, you failed. And the forgiveness I expressed in my comment no. 5 re your comment no. 4, applies to your comment no. 6, including the unfounded suggestion that I am suffering from a mental disorder. I would also suggest that the absence of facts in support of your opinions about the president and his wife is probably not a mental disorder, but it does reflect your inability to connect facts with your opinions.
And just for your information, the Jewish population of the upper west side of Manhattan, which perhaps is the upper west side you referenced, is increasingly frum, not that there is anything wrong with that.