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Nehemiah Is'nt Dead Yet! Support New Bill (H.R. 6694) to Reform and Save DPA!

ALL REALTORS NEED TO UNITE AND SAVE THIS PROGRAM!

Email this post to all of your clients and fellow realtors!

TOGETHER WE CAN DO THIS!!!

Support New Bill (H.R. 6694) to Reform and Save DPA!

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Dear steve,

As we mentioned earlier this week, the President signed H.R. 3221, Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, into law. The bill contains a provision (SEC. 2113) that forbids FHA from insuring mortgages in which the downpayment comes directly or indirectly from an interested third party (such as the seller), beginning October 1, 2008. As of this date, the minimum downpayment will be increased from 3% to 3.5%.

We are pleased to announce that a new bill, The FHA Seller-Financed Downpayment Reform and Risk-Based Pricing Authorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 6694) was introduced by several members of Congress on Thursday, July 31, 2008. Representatives Maxine Waters, Gary Miller, Al Green and Christopher Shays sponsored this bill that if passed and signed into law will allow downpayment assistance to continue indefinitely.

Scott Syphax, President and CEO of Nehemiah Corporation of America praised this group earlier today.

"Maxine Waters, Gary Miller, Al Green and Christopher Shays have demonstrated the willingness to understand all sides of this issue and the courage and leadership to follow their conscience. All those who understand the importance of working class American's having their shot at homeownership, need to work together to encourage our elected officials to pass this bill."

"There are dire consequences to America waking up on October 1st without downpayment assistance. In fact, 300,000 working class families will be locked out of homeownership in the next year alone."

In order to save downpayment assistance, we need to come together NOW to convince Congress to pass H.R. 6694 that allows downpayment assistance to continue.

Two Ways To Take Immediate Action...

Write Your Elected Officials
Please take a minute to submit your comment regarding the urgent need to pass H.R. 6694 that allows for downpayment assistance to continue indefinitely.

Submit your comments through our Legislative Alerts and Updates page.

Call Your Elected Officials
A phone call to your U.S. Senators and House Representative will make a huge impact to save private downpayment assistance programs.

Locate your elected officials

Go to Elected Officials
Enter Your Zip Code and click "Go".
Click on the link of the Representative you would like to call and then click on the Contact tab to find their Washington D.C. and District office phone number.

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Should you have any questions, our Customer Service Department is available at 877-634-3642 from 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. EST to answer your questions.

Nehemiah Corporation of America
424 N 7th Street, Suite 250
Sacramento, CA 95811

Toll Free: 1-877-634-3642
(877) NEHEMIAH
getdownpayment.com

Steve Harless Las Vegas Realtor Realty World Luxury Homes 6131 Rainbow LAS VEGAS, NV, 89118 US	Mobile: 702.217.1680 Fax: 702.804.6374 steveharless@hotmail.com http://www.viewlasvegasrealestate.com/MyBlog

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Posted by Steve Harless "Your Las Vegas Real Estate Connection" on 08/02/2008 02:41 PM

Comments (29)

nehemiah down payment assistance program, dpa, first time home buyers in nevada, realtor steve harless

Originally posted at: Las Vegas Realtor Steve Harless - RE/MAX EXTREME 702.217.1680: Nehemiah Is'nt Dead Yet! Support New Bill (H.R. 6694) to Reform and Save DPA!

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29 Comments on Nehemiah Is'nt Dead Yet! Support New Bill (H.R. 6694) to Reform and Save DPA!

AUG

2008

Thanks for posting. This is important. Veronica

send this email to everyone you know Veronica

The message was a little difficult to read. Pop ups everywhere and did not seem to have a flow. However, I get the just of it and applaud anyone who makes an effort at improving our profession.

Cheers.

Dont shoot the messenger George! links are for internet marketing for the search engines to pick up...try it, it may help your blogs/websites

Attention ALL REALTORS- ANSWER THE CALL TO ARMS! NOTIFY YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS

AUG

2008

updated

I guess I'm neutral on this. The reason Congress wanted to do away with this is because often the sales price was raised to cover the downpayment. I'm thinking that having 3-3.5% down isn't such a bad thing

A downpayment from the buyer is a good thing. This is a start to improve what I feel is a bad program.

Maybe the cheese stands alone on this....but this "affordable housing" is what got us into this mess in the first place. For Pete's sake...there are always going to be homes people cannot afford. There is NO reason why a buyer should not be made to have a little skin in the game. 3%? Please....if you qualify for a $200,000 house, you should be able to save (oops..there is an almost forgotten and foreign word in our culture) to save the 6000 required for your down payment. The government subsidizing, or guaranteeing for that matter, this down payment is utterly absurd. I am not surprised in the least to see it is sponsored by one of the dumbest people in the house Maxine Waters...but that's another story.

I remember my mom and dad saving 20% for a down payment for their home. Good grief, our society has gotten to the point where we expect/demand/and feel entitled to have things easy for us.

I wonder about where it stops. What happens if there is an automobile affordability crisis? It's already happening with healthcare...God forbid you be required to purchase your own insurance and TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. Please show me in the Constitution where government is given the right to plunder the treasury for housing affordability and down payment assistance programs.

Collectively, we demand government to take care of us. We are marching lock step behind an idea that is going to lead this Republic off a cliff.

DPA programs are a bad idea. As Greg mentioned, it artificially inflates the value to assist someone who shouldn't even be buying the house. What happens if in a year, they lose their job, a spouse dies...and they have to sell? Because they never built or established equity in the home, they are toast. Most likely, they will not have the cash reserves to write a check at closing and will let the property be repo'd and will walk away.

I think there should be a bill introduced by REALTOR's to encourage the opposite. After all, aren't we to look out for the buyer's best interest (fiduciary being one of them) and prevent them from themselves to the best of our ability? This type of program is antithetical to our responsibilities in that regard. We have to not look out for ourselves as a profession, but instead, what would be best to right this sinking ship of a country.

Derek: you have important points that I have'nt thought about....thanks for your imput

AUG

2008

Let this mother die....it is best for all in the long run. I was not for the bailout of Fannie/Freddie....the market needs to run its course and then re-build by not making the same mistakes as the past.

business must be booming in Kansas for you to be saying this derek

Steve

Business isn't booming for me necessarily. My point is the government is not responsible for people being able to afford a house. If the people cannot afford to save up 3% for a downpayment, should they even have the house?

Another point is we need to divorce ourselves of asking the government for e v e r y single aspect of our lives we need help with. What ever happened to self-sufficiency?

Why do you want to have the market sustained artificially with government money that does not exist? To me, this just prolongs the inevitable and will be worse later than letting the market continue the decline, bottom out....and then re-build. It has nothing to do with "my business in Kansas". It has ALL to do with not just looking out for my corner of the world.

I get the jist of your point of view...we should have people putting down payments on homes, but such a drastic measure to totally do away with the programs this fast is devastating. maybe it should gradually be introduced. In a perfect world, maybe we should do away with these programs, but some kind of intervention is needed so as to NOT repeat the lesson of the great depression.

The lesson of the Great Depression was for us to stay out of debt. Debt and deflation created the Depression. In the 20's, people were relying on cheap credit (like now) to purchase items. Businesses used it to purchase capital to increase production. It did provide a quick uptick in the economy but it also created consumer and commercial debt.

Long story short.....prices dropping like they did because of availability of cheap credit and goverment interference with the Smoot-Hawley Act (remember Ferris Bueller?) combined to drive the world into the depression and ending with the war time economy of the 40's.

Government intervention RARELY works. In order to learn from the Depression, we should not repeat the "easy credit" that was prevalent then.

Buellar....Buellar....Buellar....

personally...I wish a gold standard, or even a silver standard would return to back the US dollar. Then Dissolve the Federal Reserve maybe that would boost our economy as well.

Well Steve, the countries who left the gold standard first during the depression were the first to recover from the depression.

Anyone? Anyone? The tariff raised or lowered ? anyone? Lowered...and the country sank further into depression

AUG

2008

The money supply is shrinking at an alarming rate and we need down payment assistance to stop or at least slow down the downturn. We need to ease credit not constrict it. That is what made the Depression worse than it should have been.

John: u are right...That is why everyone on active rain should band together on this!!!

Please understand what exacerbated the Depression was precisely the ease and availability of money. Monetary deflation caused the Depression and our monetary policy of the gold standard made the dollar weaker....spiraling us downward further.

How much more available can credit be? Rates are still at a very relatively low interest rate. This DPA has LITTLE to do with credit..but has EVERYTHING to do with having the buyers be accountable for their own financial well being. As mentioned in an earlier post, the DPA just increases the appraisal amount artificially to help someone get the house. Providing money for down payments is just a band-aid. Money should be lent to those credit worthy and with reserves/savings.

My bet is this program will be resurrected in some fashion. Some liberal politician (like Maxine Waters et al) will not allow this to go away and will propose keeping it going. Just a guess. After all, we sure like having someone take care of us and make us feel all nice and warm and secure.

AUG

2008

I hope this goes through. Buyers need as many options as possible.

AUG

2008

Pam: is got to! Our economy is depending on it

AUG

2008

come everyone rally behind this!

AUG

2008

Steve, thank you for taking the time to provide a platform for all to comment about the situation our housing market is in.

I have found it interesting that most of the individuals that oppose DPA are misled by our own government's statistics and believe that DPA has been the driving force behind the vast forclosure rates in America today. HUD wants you to believe their numbers are correct even after the GAO (U.S. General Accounting Office) has stated that the numbers provided by HUD are incorrect and misleading. With this being said, our Senate continually touts those same numbers in their quest to eliminate DPA.

Additionally, there are major differences in terms used by HUD to identify their numbers. For example, HUD has stated that the number of defaults are at 30%. This is not the same as a forclosure. A default is when someone has missed a payment (30 days delinquent), where as a forclosure is where the borrower is 90 days late and notice of default has been filed and forclosure proceedings have been started. I hear from misinformed professionals that the forclosure rates are at 30% when this is incorrect. The actual forclosure rate is alot lower than they will let you believe.

As a provider of DPA, we contacted each of our families that have received assistance from our funds and our forclosure rate is at 6%. 6% out of 300,000 families is a 94% success rate which equals an A in my book.

Another fact to remember is that FHA and DPA was not used that much over the last 5 years. The 80/20 SISA loans at 100% LTV, and neg am loans, and 2/28 ARMS, were the predominant loan programs over those years. These subprime loans were quickly accepted by lenders and investors who did no due diligence in ensuring longevity and profitability of their portfolios. Now the party is over and the hangover begins as their loans are now defaulting and going into foreclosure

Continued:

DPA had nothing to do with those loans, but we seem to be the one to blame. The blame needs to be placed on greedy lenders/investors.

The facts are such that without DPA an estimated 10,000 professionals in our industry are going to be unemployed. Unfortunately, most of the professionals I know are self employed which means there are no state unemployment benefits available to them. What will happen to their homes? Default then foreclosure is the path that most will endure. Now, the other number of concern is the loss of $50,000,000,000 (that's BILLION) in revenue over the first 3 months with an additional $10,000,000,000 lost each month thereafter. 40% of all FHA loans are funded with DPA. Personally, I have been a mortgage professional for over 16 years. My business was down 90% in the last year. I cant afford to cut out another 40% of my 10% pie.

The question we need to ask ourselves is "Can we afford this to happen when our economy is already reeling from questionable decisions that our government has already made?" The answer is NO, WE CAN'T!!!

I ready earlier a comment about "liberal politicians" and Maxine Waters is named. I can only salute her and her unwavering stand to help the American people no matter how poor they are. That is what our elected officials are supposed to do. Represent all of us, just not the comfortable rich. I hope the party who made the comment has a business model that can withstand another 40% loss of business. If not, then they too will be out of business soon enough.

Thanks again for this opportunity.