January 26, 2007
By Aïssatou Sidimé
Hispanic homeownership topped 50 percent in recent years but is in danger of declining during this housing crisis, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said during a visit to San Antonio on Friday.
In his address to the League of United Latin American Citizens National Veterans Summit, Jackson urged people in danger of losing their homes to access new federal housing initiatives.
"I understand it is human nature to disappear during difficult times, but it never helps," he said.
As of September, Hispanic homeownership was at 50.1 percent, up more than 81 percent since 1995. The national homeownership rate was 68.2 percent as of September, up more than 19 percent since 1995.
But the rate of Hispanic homeownership could begin to decline during this mortgage crisis because many homeowners do not reach out for help when they are having financial problems. In half of all foreclosures, the homeowner did not even call the lender beforehand, Jackson said.
In Texas, 1.21 percent of homes were in foreclosure at the end of September, up slightly from the 1.20 percent for the same month in 2006. Nationwide, 1.69 percent of homes were in foreclosure at the end of the third quarter compared with 1.05 percent for the same period a year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, which tracks about 80 percent of all mortgages.
Bexar County foreclosure auctions are trending upward. The number of auctions slated for February is 15.99 percent higher than in February 2006, according to the Dallas-based Foreclosure Listing Service Inc.
One of the main federal programs to help homeowners keep their houses is the FHASecure program, which refinances some adjustable-rate mortgages into fixed-rate loans.
So far, nearly 75,000 U.S. homeowners have refinanced their mortgages through the program.
President Bush has announced he will sign a bill to raise loan limits and to loosen down payment requirements on FHA-secured loans. It would make it possible for an additional 18,000 Texas families to get government-insured mortgages, Jackson said.
San Antonio mortgage lenders say the FHASecure program is currently the main route to get out of troubled mortgages, and that expanding the program should help many more homeowners.
"It's very, very difficult to find anyone to refinance if you have had a late payment in the last 12 months," said Susan Stewart, president of SWBC Mortgage. "Most of the time the loan was sold, and it's owned by a group of people who all must agree."
Source: The San Antonio Express-News
