Alaska

Alaska Legislators to Consider Refunding Interest on Mortgage Reserves 

Representative Jay Ramras (R-Fairbanks) pre-filed legislation late Monday that would seek to give back interest on a residential homeowners’ mortgage reserve account, a move that state legislators say could save Alaskans millions of dollars a year in bank- or lender-held mortgage reserves. ”Banks and other institutions hold a portion of a mortgage payment every year in reserve to pay for homeowners’ property taxes, insurance, or other obligations for a loan, but more often than not, banks fail to pay any interest to their borrowers and consequently they hold hundreds of millions of dollars interest-free and lend that money back to homeowners,” Ramras said.