Come Stitch With Me

As if inflation and rising interest rates weren’t enough. This would really tick me off if I were shopping for a home mortgage right now…

Recently, the Federal Housing Finance Agency adjusted its fee schedule for borrowers seeking a home mortgage.

The gist:
If you close on your home loan after May 1st and you are a responsible borrower with a good credit score, your “reward” is that you now get to pay more in fees for loans underwritten by Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac than you would have if your loan had closed by April 30th. Prospective borrowers with lower credit scores will now see their fees drop as much as 1% for a similar loan.

You may ask yourself: “Why are we rewarding folks who demonstrate riskier financial behavior when it comes to home mortgages with lower fees and penalizing more financially prudent folks with higher fees? “

The spin:
Several financial talking heads swear this was not been done to penalize people with good credit scores, Jim Parrott at the Urban Wire writes, “Despite the recent coverage…FHFA is not raising fees on borrowers with good credit to lower them for those with bad credit. It is raising fees on loans there is little reason to discount so that it can better serve those who need the help.” Isn’t this the same thing?

In a press release dated April 25, 2023​ the FHFA Director states, “Higher-credit-score borrowers are not being charged more so that lower-credit-score borrowers can pay less.” She later goes on to add, “The updated pricing framework will further the safety and soundness of the Enterprises, which will help them better achieve their mission. They will provide reliable liquidity to the market while also providing more targeted support for creditworthy borrowers limited by income or wealth.

Spin it whichever way you like. Use whatever accounting shell game you like. At the end of the day, responsible borrowers with higher credit scores are still now required to pay more to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and some of those funds will go to help subsidize a specific subset of borrowers. Equity in action.

At least be honest about it. We’re not stupid.

Keep removing the incentives for people to work and be financially responsible, and we’ll really be in a pickle when no one’s working to pay the bills.

Did you see this? Income based electricity pricing proposed in California One more reason people are leaving this state in droves.

I was eating lunch with a former coworker yesterday at the Hudson Grille in Midtown when Mr. Patterson decided to open fire in the Northside Medical offices. We were literally two blocks away from where all the action unfolded. I knew something was up on my way home because the traffic along 10th Street was crazy due to several northbound routes being blocked by police cars, but I had no clue as to what had transpired. My friend called me about 15 minutes later to tell me what was going on.

But the excitement didn’t stay in Midtown. Mr. Patterson stole a truck and escaped up near where I live – to the Battery/Truist Park and where the ATL Braves play. My local middle school was placed on lockdown because of the manhunt due to Mr. Patterson allegedly being in the area. The gunman was eventually apprehended about 3 miles from the middle school at a condo complex near the Battery around 8 p.m. last night. Suffice it to say, we stayed in last night and breathed a sigh of relief when we heard he’d been captured.

Today, the deflect the blame game began. His mom was interviewed by the media and stated her son was mad because the doctor didn’t prescribe the exact medication he wanted. Claims were also made about the lack of sufficient mental health care services provided by the VA and now the VA higher-ups are frantically trying to cover their assets. The mayor and several politicians blamed “the guns.” It was also reported in the media that Mr. Patterson had served in the Coast Guard, so I assume weapons use was a part of his training.

Novel idea here: how about placing the blame for what happened yesterday squarely where it belongs – on Deion Patterson? He did it.

About five weeks ago, I restarted Weight Watchers. I joined a 30 Day Spring Weight Loss Challenge on FB hosted by Sarah at The Holy Mess. The challenge lasted the entire month of April. The accountability piece is what I wanted needed and accountability is what I got! We were expected to track everything we ate using the method of our choice and share a picture of our daily food log with the FB group (some 200+ participants BTW). We had weekly live coaching sessions with Sarah, filled out trackers and shared our reflections on our progress over the month. We will have monthly follow-up sessions in May and June.

Like some of the other participants, I am a little apprehensive about the challenge ending, but I certainly now have the tools to keep going! I’ll delve more into features in the WW app and my health insurer’s online wellness incentive programs to help with accountability.

Five things I learned in April:

Weight loss is a heck of a lot harder and slower this time around.

WW is a useful tool for tracking, but I don’t always agree with the daily/weekly point values allotted and some of the point values assigned to certain foods. On Week 3, half of my weekly points disappeared for some reason. Point values in the app are sometimes all over the place for the same food. I choose the middle value or use a rule of thumb of 1 point per 50 calories and track it that way. I’m going to hunt for my WW Freestyle (blue version) program notes and compare them to the current version. The two programs are supposedly very similar; yet I remember having more daily points and fewer points being assigned to certain favorite foods.

Summary: I’m back on track and will keep building on the progress I’ve made over the past month!