Before you get started, please click on : All out of Love - by : Air Supply  -  This is how so many others and myself have felt without the seller-financed downpayment assistance programs (DPA's).  Such programs sponsored by Nehemiah and AmeriDream....

As many of us know, there are tens of thousands of homes available and vacant due to the foreclosure crisis. As of October 1, 2008, the seller-financed downpayment programs were eliminated with no real answer if they would ever return. I have been in touch with a few people over at Nehemiah from time to time. Well, the fight is back on.

Well, the Nehemiah Corporation has started that fight by introducing GroundSwell2. Basically a marketing campaign to get awareness out to the public and to Congress. Bill H.R. 600, just recently introduced, is the new 2009 version of last years bill H.R. 6694.  There will be an annoucement on Tuesday to when the first Town Hall meeting for 2009 will take place. Please keep in touch with me or follow me to find out the date and time.

What does all of this mean?  Yes, there are some of you the disagree with this program and want to see homeowners save their own money. Some of you have other reasons to dislike this program. But the positives far out way the negative. It comes down to morals and ethics, when working with a program such as the seller-financed DPA programs. Reinstating DPA's could help ensure continued liquidity in a stagnating housing market that is crippling us financially towards bankruptcy per se. Possibly to another Great Depression. Sorry if these are harsh words, but this is reality.

At this moment, our government is throwing money at new programs, throwing money at banks and corporations, in return for possibly taking it upon themselves to restore financial freedom. But do you know that the seller-financed DPA programs won't cost the government or the taxpayers any money?  This type of program could actually save the government over 12 million just this year alone.

Overall.....

• How many of you sellers had a buyer use these DPA's to buy your home? 

• How many of you buyers used this program because you didn't either want to use your savings or just couldn't save enough money.  Do you know that FHA changed it's downpayment requirements for the beginning of 2009?  If not, please read : New FHA loans downpayment changes 

• How many of you realtors had clients that used this program to either help your sellers sell their home or to help your buyers buy a home?
  

FYI.... Nehemiah actually has something up their sleeve. I am in constant contact with Nehemiah. Even if the seller-financed DPA's don't work, Nehemiah has 2 to 4 new plans in motion. That is all that can be mentioned for now. And for those of you that didn't know, I had the pleasure of being asked to speak at a rally in D.C. last year with Scott Syphlax, CEO of Nehemiah.  If you missed that, you can read several articles about it here.

• Mr. Belonger goes to Washington - by Patricia Kennedy

• The March to Washington D.C. - Taking back downpayment assistance programs
  

• Video :  Here is a video of myself at the rally  (PS... I spoke longer than what shows on the video, but someone cut out the first 5 minutes.. oh well)
  

Here are some things that HUD wants to see part of bill HR 600 are :

• Borrowers with credit scores from 620 to 680 could be subject to higher insurance premiums. (I personally wouldn't have a problem with this)
• Borrowers with credit scores below 620 would be banned from using the down payment assistance program until mid 2009. ( I truly think that we could improve on this one. First off, why down to 620?  Secondly, even people with credit scores of 570 or such can still have decent credit, under FHA's credit guidelines.

In ending, in my opinion, such permanent elimination would put another severe strain on the already strained housing market. And it could add a ripple affect to those houses on the market, adding more days not sold. If you think about it, if you are moving up, someone needs to buy your home and that is usually a first time homebuyer. 

At this moment, the hour-glass might be out of sand soon. That rope trying to pull us out of that quicksand might be coming to an end. Stay tune next Tuesday, the 20th of January, for more information regarding DPAs. And keep this in mind... those stats that you heard about from HUD last year, making DPA's sound bad?  Many of them were just thrown out into the wind. There finally were independent studies that found many of those stats to be very misleading. The biggest one of all, that 1 out of every 3 DPA loans went into foreclosure. A FYI, there were political reasons behind the misinformation.

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For more information on FHA loans, please go to this link. The FHA Expert

For more information about the 2008-2009 Tax Credit for First Time Homebuyers : 2008 Tax Credit

For important mortgage insight to watch for, please read : Consumers need to be aware of these Red Flags !!!!!

Copyright © 2009 by Jeff Belonger