Back To The Days of 20% Down Payment? Oregon Suspends CashAdvantage Program

I was on vacation soaking up some sun and warmth in Southern California last week. 

Returning home, reaffirmed in our appreciation of the slower pace and more peaceful life we have here in Southern Oregon leaving the freeway shootings behind, I find one of my favorite loan programs has come under fire.

The Oregon Bond Loan is a wonderful tool for first time home buyers, and the CashAdvantage program has been the hand up many first time home buyers in Oregon have needed to fulfill their dream of homeownership. This program provided a 3% credit toward the buyers' down payment and/or closing costs, helping to overcome a hurdle many first time home buyers face, which is the lack of a substantial down payment. In the current market environment, buyers of the bonds sold to fund this program have disappeared, so the program has been suspended.

In almost 25 years in this business, not a single one of the first time home buyers I have worked with has defaulted on their loan! Most are extraordinarily grateful to have been given the help to give their family the stability of homeownership, while starting on the road to building long-term equity wealth.  

Why is this being taken away from them?

See you at the closing table, albeit it with one less tool in my chest...

Karen Cooper - OR/CA Mortgage Consultant - www.Quality4Loans.com