Chris Arnold
speaker
152 appearances
10 recordings
4 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 4 Apr
Chris Arnold’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Dec 2025 with 3.
Appearances
And to be clear here, this is all happening before the foreclosure pause, before that moratorium. So these were the only two options, the only two on-ramps for Natalie to resume payment and keep her house. Natalie's mortgage company gives her a deadline to decide whether or not to take on those higher payments.
So unlike the Queens, Natalie decided to try somehow to make this loan modification thing work. Suddenly her monthly payments were 50% higher and she picked up every spare piece of work that she could find.
But she is still somehow doing it. And ironically, it is the fact that Natalie decided to try and make this higher mortgage thing work that is the problem. Because the bailout, the VASP program, it is only for people who have stopped making payments and are headed towards foreclosure, which puts someone like Natalie in a rough spot. I mean...
Yeah, strategic default would give some people in Natalie's situation access to the bailout program, but it would wreck Natalie's credit and her ability to get a loan anytime soon. And so she's still hustling, still scraping together those way higher monthly payments.
Chris and Quill have been trying to figure out how many Natalies there are out there, people who will not be helped by the big bailout plan, but probably still need help. So they asked the VA, did not get an answer, and then they FOIA'd a bunch of documents.
They got a bunch of documents through the Freedom of Information Act, and those appear to show that about 3,000 veterans took a loan modification and ended up paying at least 25% more And some paid a lot more. At least 1,000 vets ended up with monthly payments that were 50% higher than before, just like Natalie.
The Department of Veterans Affairs holds these press conferences every month with, like, the person in charge, the head of the VA, Secretary Dennis McDonough. And for the last year... Good afternoon, Quill. Hey, thanks. Can y'all hear me? Yep, we got you. Basically every month... We'll go to Chris.
Chris and Quill have been showing up and asking about VA mortgages.
At the most recent of these press conferences. Thanks, Dan. We'll go to Quill.
Will got the chance to ask the VA secretary Natalie Donaldson's specific question.
As of this recording, the bailout plan, VASP, has just started to be rolled out. Today's episode was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Meg Kramer and fact-checked by Dania Suleiman. Engineering by Sina Lafredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. And a very, very special thanks this week to Robert Benincasa and Bob Little. I'm Kenny Malone. This is NPR.
Thanks for listening.
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