HUD's ban on seller-financed mortgage down-payment assistance programs has been temporarily blocked by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman. In a four-page ruling, Friedman said the rule threatens to put nonprofit organizations offering such programs out of business and added that HUD "failed to supply a reasoned analysis for its departure from its long-standing policy of approval" of the initiatives. AmeriDream in Gaithersburg, Md., and Nehemiah in Sacramento, Calif., were among the groups that had filed suit to contest the rule, which was scheduled to take effect on Oct. 31; and they say their programs help put minorities and first-time buyers in homes. HUD had argued that borrowers who receive assistance from sellers are more than twice as likely to default on their mortgages or become delinquent on their payments than other buyers with mortgages guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration.