I just received a "new" option letter from the Road Home. Overall I'm very satisfied with the $120,406.63 they're offering this time around.
On July 14th, 2006, we met with the Road Home people in Baton Rouge, as we were part of the pilot program. Then in Mid-October, we received our first option letter. It said that we were eligible for $64,116.87. There were two major mistakes: First they estimated our house to be worth $146,154. However, we purchased our home for $157,000 in 2002, and it was appraised for $193,000 in 2003. Our house was easily worth more than $200,000 prior to Katrina, but thank God we refinanced and had it appraised. Second, they claimed we received $12,495.67 from Allstate Homeowners. Instead, we have received much less than half that figure.
This new option letter reads as follows:
Estimated Pre-Storm Value: $193,000
Estimated Damage to Your Home: $289,363.80
Homeowner's Insurance Proceeds: $3,051.91
FEMA Assistance: $0
Flood Insurance Proceeds: $64,541
Penalty Assessed for No Insurance: $0
So now we'll sign it and fax it back. I think with the approximately $70,000 from Allstate, the $120,000 from the Road Home, and $118,000 from the SBA, we should be able to fix our house. But there has been talk about forcing people to pay off their SBA loan with their Road Home Funds, meaning people can't have both the Road Home money and the SBA Loan. If that happens, we're screwed.
Later Note: Well it happened, and we're screwed-The SBA took its loan offer back in mid-January. Read about it here.
5 comments:
This is awesome. Hope it works out.
Sounds as if at last you could have a road home! I'll pray it is so.
Great news, but shoudln't they have added an escalation factor to you 2003 apparsial? that should be approximately an additional 10%.
Frorm the Road Home Website;
Homeowners may provide an “arm’s length” appraisal (i.e., an appraisal ordered by a lender in conjunction with a loan, not an appraisal ordered by the homeowner) that was completed from January 1, 2000, up to the day before one of the hurricanes affected the homeowner (August 28, 2005, or September 23, 2005). These appraisals will be adjusted to reflect the market rate as of the second quarter of 2005, using figures released by Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (www.ofheo.gov)
Mominem raises a good point. That would be an additional 19K. However, at this point, we're so tired of waiting, that we'll sign for the 120K.
Great News!!! The only thing that could add to this joy is the news that Endymion would be back in Mid-City, but unfortunately, despite the City Council's and Uptown residents pleas, Uptown gets stuck with it for one more year. Looks like both neighborhoods lose!!!!
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