James Wirth

Making Home Affordable, announced in February 2009 to much fanfare, promised to be the solution for 9 million homeowners.

The two programs, Home Affordable Modification Program targeting homeonwers unable to make their payments because of financial hardship; and Home Affordable Refinance Program targeting homeowners who were able to make their payments but unable to refinance into a lower rate because their equity had fallen, seemed to be the answer.

30 days later, Making Home Afordable struggled to launch but gained momentum as lenders began making announcements that they were adopting the standards and 'participating' in the programs.

Five months later, if you google "Home Affordable Modification" -- and then click through the first several pages of the government listings (how the heck do they get such good placement) and beyond the solicitations of countless mortgage companies and modification companies promising to deliver on the, well, promises, of the program -- you will begin to see blogs and message boards overwhelmed with stories of homeowners either unable to get an answer from their lender on whether they qualify or worese, their lender says they don't. And this despite the "makinghomeaffordable.gov" Web site indicating that they 'may qualify.'

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the programs are struggling to reach critical mass.

I have posted a number of blogs on this subject in an effort to act as a resource for homeowners struggling to understand these programs here, here, here, and here, and I've received countless private ActiveRain messages from homeowners nationwide turning over every rock they can find in search for answers. What have I told them?

Make your voices heard.

I've suggested contacting their lenders repeatedly (squeaky wheel gets the grease), contact their State Representaves (which you can do here), and I'm writing today to offer another solution:

I've created an online petition, designed to unite the voices of the many who are for numerous reason either not getting an answer on whether they qualify, or just flat out are being told they don't.

http://www.petitiononline.com/afford/.

The petition calls for transparency and accountability in the face of so much uncertainty. After all, it's already tough enough to be faced with losing a home...

Please take a moment, if you are so inclined, to add your voice.

United we stand!

Thanks for reading -- James Wirth

If I'm the only one in this boat, I'd be very surprised.

Things have been, let's say, interesting lately. Actually, "challenging" would be putting it mildly. Many changes in the mortgage business and I've found myself scrambling a bit to keep up with everything. Unfortunately, my blog posting frequency has paid the price although I have done my best to return private messages received.

So, where is the mortgage market?!? Hovering above 5% based on the standard information I post regarding rates. I'll try to get back in here again very soon and give a more formal update. But in this post I want to pass along a nice tool I've often referred to when working with potential clients currently renting. It makes a very good attempt at cracking the age-old question of:

Should I buy or should I rent?

It's from our good friends at the New York Times Web site, is quite interactive and does a very fair job at addressing the pros and cons.

It can be found here.

Happy financing everyone! -- James Wirth

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today that the $8,000 tax credit is officially approved for use as down payment provided at closing!

Woah, pump the brakes dude.

Before you leave work early to write an offer, we're still one step away -- getting the lenders ready to implement this. BUT, today was a HUGE leap forward and many of the logistical details are now know. I would caution everyone to be patient, however, and if you're writing an offer and relying on this, a contingency for this being available may be a prudent step.

So far this is specifically for FHA loans. It remains to be seen whether it makes sense on a conventional loan or whether they will allow this, but the majority of my buyers waiting for this are looking at FHA anyway.

Here's the IRS site on the tax credit (waiting for it to be updated with this info);

FHA's Web site with the announcement

Using First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credits for the Downpayment (this one has a lot of the details on how it works)

Definitely great news and I will keep you posted! --James Wirth

Mortgage Rates have gotten a little squirrelly of late, and are up about .25% from my last posting, here (yes, you must read my previous post -- it's the ol' bait-and-switch).

Many Economists (whoever that guy is, he sure is mysterious) say that rates are likely going to climb to 6% by the end of the year.

THIS COULD BE IT PEOPLE!

Ok, that may be slightly dramatic, but rates always go up faster than they go down, so if you're getting close to buying or refinancing...

"Hello, this is James Wirth with your red carpet room service. It's now time to WAKE UP... or I mean... LOCK YOUR RATE!

As always, thanks for reading! --James Wirth

How's everybody doing? Everyone keeping up?!?

Washington State legislature passed a law recently that allocated funds to be used as short-term loans that would provide the $8K tax credit up-front, at closing to be used as down payment or for closing costs! You can read a recent article on the subject here. We've bumped into a bit of an accidental IRS road block, that they are currently working through.

And now, FHA SEcretary Shaun Donovan indicated to a NAR conference in Washington that 'that important changes, which the National Association of Realtors^® has been calling for, will help consumers purchase a home. "We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a downpayment," Donovan said. According to Donovan, the FHA's approved lenders will be permitted to "monetize" the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.'

Much of the details have not been announced, but thi sis very exciting stuff! You can read more here

Read more information on the Realtor.org site here.

Thanks for reading! -- James Wirth