Last week, President Bush attempted to offer Americans an 800 number to help them solve their mortgage problems.  Unfortunately, the president didn’t know the number.  He offered up an 800 number when the number was actually an 888 number.  This resulted in many Americans facing foreclosure calling a Texas home schooling telephone number, but Americans do not need to be homeschooled in mortgages, they needed help. 

It remains to be seen, just how much this phone number will actually help Americans, but if you are looking for assistance in avoiding foreclosure the correct telephone number is 888-995-HOPE.

For what it’s worth, the White House press office sent out a correction via a press release. The president was only a few digits off. “CORRECTION TO THE PRESIDENT’S REMARKS: THE TOLL-FREE PHONE NUMBER FOR THE HOPE NOW HOTLINE IS 1-888-995-HOPE.”  President Bush: Call 1-800-OOPS

The president’s most recent plan, a micro-bail out, would enable mortgage holders of cheap homes, luxury homes and everything in between that are facing an ugly arm adjustment to freeze their variable interest rates for five years.  So if your mortgage rate is supposed to adjust upwards, it could be frozen at the current rate for five years while you attempt to straighten out your mortgage or sell your house.  It’s not a true solution, but it does keep things from getting terribly ugly while the president is still in office.

If you want a real solution, you better pick the right president in 2008.

Lower fees, easier process, less credit checks or income verification, all of those things probably mean that you are going to pay a higher interest rate on your mortgage.  Lendors are like the mob in that they always take a sure bet, and their bets can be assured when they charge you enough interest to profit!

This video is a little dated, but the concept can definitely be extrapolated even in today’s mortgage crisis world.  Just because the industry is in ‘crisis’ over sub prime, it doesn’t mean they are not going to have a profitable year.  If Las Vegas could come up with a great idea to run into ‘financial trouble’, I’m sure they would like to go to capital hill for a bail out too!

This is the window dressing version of what is going on.  There are a lot of lines between the lines to read into the real Sub Prime mortgage mess.