Everett, WA

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is unveiling a new Mortgage Program to provide support to state and local housing agencies to provide Mortgage Help to thousands of home buyers and renters.

The administration said the new program would help to support low mortgage rates and expand resources for low and middle income borrowers who want to buy or rent a home.

The program will feature two parts

• a new bond purchase program to support new lending by housing finance agencies and
  
• a temporary credit and liquidity program to improve access by housing agencies to credit sources for their existing bonds.

The new program will operate under a law that Congress passed in 2008 to bolster the housing industry, which has been battered by the worst slump in decades, a downturn that saw home sales and home prices plunge and mortgage defaults soar to record levels.

The government said the new effort was designed to provide hundreds of thousands of affordable mortgages for working families and enable the development and rehabilitation of tens of thousands of affordable rental properties.

Treasury, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency said in a joint news release that the new program would provide temporary support to local housing financing agencies and encourage them to return to relying on market sources for their capital as quickly as possible.

The local and state housing finance agencies, which provide loans to people with low or moderate incomes, have had a hard time raising money to fund loans due to the housing crisis and credit crunch.

“This initiative is critical to helping working families maintain access to affordable rental housing and homeownership in tough economic times,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said. “Through this initiative, the administration aims to help (the housing finance agencies) jump-start new lending to borrowers who might not otherwise be served and to better support the financing costs of their current programs — key components in stabilizing the housing market overall.”

The VA (Veterans Administration) loan continues to quietly perform - zero down, seller paid closing costs, seller can pay revolving debt for buyer under certain circumstances and the default rate is only 4.69% confirming the myth the down payment is a crucial component for a loan to perform is FALSE!

The VA has always been a full document loan and not only looks at the veterans debt to income but also looks at residual income. In other words folks the focus here and with most loans that perform since the beginning of time is the ability to REPAY the loan not whether there is a down payment or not.

You must be active or have served in the military to be eligible. Over the two plus decades it has been a privilege to provide home loans to our brave men and women serving our country. Next time you see an active service member or veteran be sure and reach out to shake their hand and thank them for our freedom.

It is a shame HUD does not get on board and bring back the down payment assistance program feature but alas they are part of the great disconnect our government has with us here on main street.

I wish us all well.

Unfortunately the short sale is more common place than it should be. I was researching some other topic and I came across this video by Annie Fitzsimmons posted on the "Washington Realtor" website and it is a three part series.

For the seller I recommend part one and for the potential buyer I recommend Part III in this three part series and recommend anyone to go through all of it to learn how the banking industry handles (or does not handle) this stuff and why it takes patience and perseverance for those participating in this exercise.

The link is below.

http://www.warealtor.org/short-sales/

The bottom line is if you plan on selling via short sale, Deed in Lieu or letting your home go to foreclosure it would be good to talk to an attorney to make sure you understand the implications of your decision.

I wish us all well.

We have seen folks in my profession come and go due to market conditions and even though 99 banks have failed since Wall Street handed to us this financial calamity, it does not match the 500 or so banks that failed back in 1989 (Savings & Loan) however today the situation is worse now than it was then.

According to the State of Washington Department of Finance, the number of licensed loan originators in December of 2007 was at 13,722. December 2008 - 7,863 and 4,597 renewed for 2009 and I'm guessing the number of active licensed loan originators is lower than the number of '09 renewals as I sit here today.

It is likely the trend we see here in Washington is repeated all across America and consumer access to seasoned experienced professional loan originators will diminish and history tells me this cannot be good for the consumer.

In the ‘old days' the consumer had banks only. Banks were slow (took 90 days to close a simple deal) they charged more up front fee's (2% origination fee) and of course the spread on their money was terrific...(sounds like the insurance industry today). They had their own little cozy non-monopoly monopoly...remember?

According to the Office of Financial Management for the State of Washington our population is around 6.5 million. My experiences in the banking system, mortgage broker system and now mortgage banking system confirm home owners or potential home owners living here or moving here need to focus on finding an experienced professional and that will not necessarily be found at your bank or credit union.

When mortgage bankers and brokers came along not only could the consumer find lower interest rates compared to their local bank or credit union, they found quicker turn around times plus trained professionals providing consumers a cost analysis to confirm the decision they were making was in their best interest.

The mortgage banker and broker industry developed software and delivery systems superior to the banking industry the result was (prior to the Wall Street calamity) over 60% of the consumer relied upon the mortgage banker or broker for their mortgage and management of their equity resulting in higher satisfaction than any bank or credit union could deliver.

For those that are looking to buy for the first time or again, refinance or for those that simply need guidance on how they should be managing the equity of their home, searching for the seasoned loan originator should be their focus.

There are tough times ahead for the consumer because of the ridiculous regulation and underwriting atmosphere (see my blog on the new good faith estimate) plus lenders continue to extort money from the consumer based upon the discriminatory practice of our current credit scoring system. The banking lobby is stronger than ever trying to force us (mortgage banker and broker) out of business with the backing of Barney Frank and others.

I have been in the mortgage industry over two decades and watched our economy go up and down. I have watched industry production expand and contract. Witnessed the decimation of entire sectors due to 'irrational exuberance' bad behavior or fraud perpetrated by Enron and others. Finally I have witnessed the lack of government oversight including the various agencies responsible and no matter what party is in power fail miserably.

So the challenge for the consumer looking for a home loan is the limited access to a professional - seasoned - licensed mortgage professional. There are a few of us out there and I happen to be one of them.

I recommend you write your representative in DC and tell them you want fairness and competition not more regulatory non-sense (see previous blogs) and most important tell them to slam the door on the bank lobby while they are kicking out the insurance lobby. Are you with me?

http://activerain.com/blogs/kirkwilliams

I wish us all well.

Sixty million dollar Obama program says "we know best" and wants to review your loan docs....I KNOW how cool is that? (he says in a tone of resentment) They (the government) think they are better equipped to tell you how to manage your money!

Well bust my buttons - 24 national and regional organizations, 5 multi state organizations plus 463 state and local housing counseling agencies. Yippeee!!! (getting a little more smarmy) 4400 counselors will be available to add their opinion about your loan. I am in awe of my government - how do I put my pants on in the morning?

So let's review. You will have 2 inches of disclosures thanks to Barney Frank and friends from both sides of the isle plus I will be disclosing the disclosures I disclosed to you after I initially disclosed it to you - (and I CAN'T WAIT to spring the new good faith estimate on you -COMING JAN. 01- see previous blogs) then your file will be underwritten - all the information is re-verified in multiple redundant systems over the course of the process then here comes your newly trained counselor to review all of this for you and provide their sage advice because they (your counselor) after working at the coffee stand since high school went through the HUD two week training program equipping them to counsel people making the most important financial decision of their lives....It's all good! If you don't believe me ask the folks going into foreclosure how the HUD counseling worked for them.

Banks don't train their people adequately to be loan officers so how do you feel about the government handling this when it is the government overseeing our financial system and this same government after many warnings allowed this financial meltdown to ocurr?

Sorry - I can't take this why should you? Why would I be so opposed to this non-sense? Is it because I am afraid of the educated public....no....is it because I am a sinister individual that preys upon the weak?....no ...Is it because I don't know what I'm doing so we need the government originating your loans?....no...

All the above activity plus add to this the discriminatory practice of a credit scoring system that artificially jacks your rate. Add the goofball (courtesy of Andrew Cuomo AG of NY) HVCC -appraisal process that is killing the consumer and adding more cost to the process doing nothing to prevent stupid nor does nothing to prevent bad behavior. Am I making sense?

This is a classic example of cover for the political bodies that should have been overseeing this to begin with and they dropped the ball. The result is what we see today (as the stock market soars over 10,000) the 200 million under represented American, the middle class is handed down crap like this.

America - you are not "stupid" so when will you finally say enough?

Please, I beg of you, write your representative. Ask them to strengthen oversite instead of subjecting us to all this "stupid". Lack of oversight has always been the problem wouldn't you agree?

I wish us all well.