Donne Knudsen

The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) has to announce the return of the California Homebuyer's Downpayment Assistance Program (CHDAP).

CHDAP provides down payment assistance in the form of a deferred payment junior loan of an amount up to the lesser of three percent (3%) of the purchase price or appraised value. Interest is calculated at 3.25% per annum simple interest.

Borrowers must be first-time homebuyers as well as meet the program income guidelines and requirements and the property must be within CalHFA's sales price limits. CHDAP may be combined with the following first mortgage programs:

• CalHFA Cal30 Conventional Loan Program (more about this later)

• CalHFA Community Stabilization Home Loan Program (CSHLP)

• CalHFA SMART Loan Program

• Any non-CalHFA conventional or government first mortgage loan

CHDAP down payment assistance can not replace borrower required down payment. For example, if you are using CHDAP with FHA, you will still need to come in with 3.5% down payment in accordance with FHA requirements but you can use CHDAP in addition to your required down payment or to cover your closing costs.

CalHFA will also be requiring prospective homebuyer education counseling for all borrowers applying for a CalHFA conventional first mortgage or subordinate mortgage loan program, even if the first mortgage loan is a non-CalHFA program.

Since the suspension of the CalHFA first time buyer programs that allowed eligible homebuyers to apply for safe and affordable 100% financed home loan options, it has become increasingly difficult for many low-medium income buyers here in Ventura County to realize the dream of homeownership. Fortunately, there is another option that may help some of those who were hoping to get into their own home this year.

The USDA Rural Guaranteed program extends 100% financing opportunities to help low-medium income residents purchase homes with no down payment required and no monthly mortgage insurance. This program is only available in designated USDA eligible areas. The USDA eligible areas for Ventura County are as follows:

Ventura County: The areas surrounding Highway 126 as well as the areas surrounding Highway 33 north of Highway 126.

Eligible Cities Include: Oak View, Mira Monte, Meiners Oak, Ojai, Fillmore, Piru and some parts of Santa Paula and Ventura

For more info on this program see USDA Rural Guaranteed.

In reviewing many of the eligible properties in these areas, I came across this really great home that I wanted to share here.

It's a 3/bd home in the shadow of the Topa Topa mountains, situated half way between Ojai and Santa Paula where the mountain air is clean and fresh. This wonderful home has been in the same family for more than 50 years. Sturdy construction and loving care has kept this home in outstanding condition.

Freshly painted inside and out, the grounds are absolutely immaculate. The kitchen was recently updated and shows well. There is also a huge garage that has lots of storage. Make it your own workshop away from the house.

For more info on this lovely home, contact Rosalie Meyer at 805.4026948 or rosaliemeyer@gtprop.com.

Finding out more about affordable home loan options and getting pre-approved is an absolute must. The pre-approval process is relatively simple so contact me today to get pre-approved for this incredible program and make this great home yours.

Applications can only be submitted by approved lenders, for more information on the USDA Rural program guidelines and eligibility, please feel free to contact me.

As far as affordable housing programs go, the city of Simi Valley has one of the best down payment assistance programs I have ever worked with. For more info on their program, check out CITY OF SIMI VALLEY - First Time Home Buyer Program, for program guidelines and requirements.

Basically, qualified low-medium income, first time buyers can purchase a four bedroom home up to $414,000 with as much as $200,000 in down payment assistance or a three bedroom home up to $345,000 with as much as $150,000. The down payment assistance comes in the form of a "silent second" so you make no payments on it.

Not all active properties are eligible for the program because they do not meet the program guidelines for sales price and size. However, there are quite a few fantastic properties that will qualify for the program and as of today are not in escrow and do not have any other offers on them, which means you may not have to compete with a gazillion other buyers for the properties.

For example, 4516 Apricot Rd. #B, is a wonderful 3bd/2.5ba townhouse with nearly 1,200 square feet of living space. This end unit's freshly painted kitchen is light and bright and the unit has one of the largest patios in the complex. There is also a direct access, 2-car garage.

The best part: this is not an REO or a short sale so no irritating and frustrating bank to work with. This great property is listed at $260,000 but buyers would only need to qualify for $195,100 in order to be eligible for down payment assistance to purchase this home.

For more info on this wonderful home contact Eric Rickling at 805.4057920 or homessoldbyeric@yahoo.com.

Another great property is 4180 Ish Dr. and is a completely remodeled 3bd/2ba home with nearly 1,200 square feet on a more than 7,500 square foot lot. The kitchen has custom cabinets, granite counters, stainless steel appliances, and custom tile flooring. There's also a huge backyard for entertaining.

There are simply too many wonderful updated features to list. Although it's listed at $285,000, buyers would only need to qualify for $195,100 in order to be eligible for down payment assistance to purchase this home.

For more info on this wonderful home, contact Edward Rohn at 818.3070202 or erohn10352@aol.com.

There's also 4180 Eileen St., which is also a very nice, 3bd/2ba home with nearly 1200 square feet on a more than 7,100 square foot lot. The kitchen has been completely updated with new cabinets, counters and flooring.

There are also remodeled bathrooms with new tile flooring, new plumbing. New wrought iron gates surround a beautifutl landscaped lawn with many rose bushes. Also a variety of fruit trees and awesome covered patio

While this wonderful is listed at $304,950, buyers would only need to qualify for $195,00 in order to be eligible for down payment assistance to purchase this home. For more info on the home, contact Rick Hurtado at 805-404-2111 or rick.hurtado@yahoo.com.

Today's real estate market can be really scary, which is why it's important to get as much information as possible before starting your search. Finding out more about affordable home loan options and getting pre-approved is an absolute must.

The pre-approval process is relatively simple so contact me today to get pre-approved for this incredible program and make one of these fantastic properties your next home.

Every week, I get calls and/or emails from first time buyers looking to purchase an affordable property here in the Conejo Valley. For anyone familiar with this particular area, it's a stretch of area that not only encompasses two different counties (Ventura & Los Angeles Counties) but it's also an area that contains some of the more expensive areas in these two counties.

One of the cities that I seem to get asked about the most is Westlake Village. Prospective buyers who are already renting in Westlake Village will generally want to stay in the area because they either work in the area or they have friends and family in the area that they want to stay close to. Others have young children and don't want to remove their kids from the phenomenal school district for the area.

As I referenced earlier though, Westlake Village is just about the most expensive city in the Conejo Valley, it's even been referred to as the Beverly Hills of the Conejo Valley.

So finding affordable homes for the medium income first timer can be a challenge. To make matters even more difficult, some of the most affordable properties currently for sale are not HUD approved properties, which makes them ineligible for FHA purchases.

Right now, there are several properties available for the first time buyer wanting to purchase in Westlake Village. The best thing about these properties are that they are not short sales or REO's and currently (as of today) have no other offers on them!

In other words, you would not be competing against a dozen other offers with a bunch of all cash buyers! What more could an ambitious, highly motivated first time buyer ask for? Unfortunately though, these properties are not available for FHA buyers.

Attention Westlake Village Homeowners Associations: you're missing out on some eligible and fully pre-approved buyers by not allowing your properties to become HUD approved.

FHA buyers are going to be around for a long time to come. So if you want your communities to be available to today's new buyers, you need to make your communities available to FHA buyers.

Earlier this week, there was an announcement by Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan regarding FHA allowing first time buyers being able to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment for a home (HUD Secretary Announces Monetization of $8,000 Tax Credit).

The announcement made quite a stir because although HUD issued the statement in Mortgagee Letter 2009-15, the fact that they didn't explain how this would be implemented left the public as well as many in the morgage industry wondering just how this all was going to happen.

The very next day, Mortgagee Letter 2009-15 was rescinded. After some checking around, I found out one way that the state of California plans to still implement a program to allow first time home buyers to use the first time buyer tax credit towards buying a home.

The Independent Cities Lease Finance Authority (ICLFA) is working on a program to utilize the Federal First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit as a source for down payment assistance. This program might only be available to cities who are members of the Independent Cities Finance Authority. Further details of the program are not available at this time.

The $8,000 tax credit is available for eligible first time homebuyer purchasing their home prior to December 1, 2009. Under the CA Tax Credit Advance program, these funds may be offered to the borrower as down payment assistance. Once the borrower files their taxes, or amends an existing tax return, the $8,000 will come back to the lender to pay off the DPA loan. This program will be best utilized with an FHA loan or Conventional with some other local DPA program.

The ICLFA and participating lenders are working to hopefully have this program available sometime in June.

The following counties are current members of the ICLFA:

San Bernardino County San Diego County San Mateo County

The following cities are current members of the ICLFA:

Alhambra Azusa Baldwin Park Barstow Bell Bellflower Brea Carson

Chino Claremont Colton Commerce Compton Covina Downey Duarte

El Monte Fontana Fresno Gardena Garden Grove Glendale Glendora

Hawaiian Gardens Hawthorne Hermosa Beach Huntington Park Indio Inglewood

La Habra La Puente Lakewood Lancaster Lawndale Long Beach Los Angeles

Lynwood Monrovia Montebello Monterey Park Morgan Hill Norwalk Palmdale

Paramount Pico Rivera Pomona Rancho Cucamonga Rialto Riverside Rohnert Park

San Fernando San Juan Capistrano Santa Clarita Santa Rosa Signal Hill South Gate

Vernon Vista West Covina Whittier Yucaipa