Again the folowing shows that common Sense is becoming more common, does this men their is light at the end of the tunnel. I am loving this market and look forward to helping people in their Real estate transactions buy enough already with the red tape hurdles we have to jump seemingly every week. 

At last a court that makes the a Fed's think and more importantly come up with an alternative plan bfore carrying out their knee jerk reaction policies. Thank You from Atlanta GA!! 

Court temporarily blocks ban on Nehemiah's down-payment program

Sacramento-based Nehemiah Corp. of America and fellow providers of down payment assistance for low-income home buyers won a key court ruling Wednesday in their decade-long battle to keep their programs running.

A federal court temporarily blocked a U.S. Housing and Urban Development plan to ban most of the nation's down- payment assistance programs beginning Wednesday. The housing agency maintains the programs have helped push homebuyers into foreclosure and often raise the price of homes for those who can least afford them.

But the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia ruled that HUD "failed to supply a reasoned analysis" for ending a program pioneered a decade ago in South Sacramento. The court said HUD also "failed to consider reasonable alternatives" to its ban announced Sept. 28.

The ruling allows the programs to continue while the legal process continues.

Nehemiah and other providers say their assistance "gifts" help lower-income buyers with the hardest part of the transaction: coming up with cash for a down payment.

This is how it works: A lender contacts Nehemiah or a similar group and asks for a down-payment "gift" for a lower-income home-buyer. Nehemiah sends money to cover the buyer's down payment. The seller then sends Nehemiah a check for the same amount plus a $499 processing fee. Though Nehemiah discourages it, sellers sometimes add the costs to the price of the house.

By Jim Wasserman