Is the $700 million dollar bailout going to work?  Very interesting question and the answers vary from analyst to analyst.  In my opinion, there are way too many wild cards to fully predict the outcome at this time.  So, the government is going to buy up all the “bad” mortgages and now the banks will have money to lend.  The problem is……that doesn’t mean the bank are going to.  It is very possible that they will just sit on their new found cash, keep the consumer requirements so high that no one can get a loan and the credit crunch will continue on it’s current path.  It would have been nice to see some sort of regulation requiring the banks that are benefiting from the bail out to guarantee that they would start extending credit and start relaxing some of the ridiculous guidelines that have been put in place.  The government managed to look after the needs of people making arrows, but somehow those of us in need of a mortgage still got left out to pasture.  Now…..I’m not saying that they need to start lending to the consumers with horrible credit, but there are a lot of people out there with good credit that are being denied mortgages for no other reason then they don’t have an 800 score.  Also, what about the Mortgage Insurance companies?  Recently, I had a client lose their refi because the Mortgage Insurance company has guidelines even tighter than the lender.  In fact, the lender approved the loan, but the mortgage insurance company denied it even though my client’s credit scores were above 700.  That was a lovely day…..let me tell ya.  So, it looks as though there is still some “wait and see” to go through before any clear-cut answer will be made apparent.  Keep your fingers crossed.