WashPost: Obama got discount on mortgage

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The Washington Post reports that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (pictured) received a discount on his home loan that saved him roughly $300 per month: ‘Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.’

More: ‘The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a ‘super super jumbo.’ Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates. Compared with average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama’s rate could have saved him more than $300 per month.’

UPI leads with reaction from the Obama campaign: ‘Campaign officials and the financial institution involved say terms Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., received on his Chicago home mortgage were proper.’

Andrew Sullivan blogs that the story is missing a key piece of information: Obama’s FICO score. He quotes Nate Silver: ‘Unless the Washington Post has access to Obama’s FICO score -- and unless it has rented an apartment to him, it probably doesn’t -- it is missing a pretty important piece of information on what Obama’s mortgage rate ought to have been. What was Obama’s FICO score? ... I would think that the Obamas were exceptionally creditworthy. So indeed, Obama received a ‘discount’ -- the same discount that any borrower in his position would have received.’