Rich Bouchner New York City Real Estate

Fannie Mae just released updated guidelines for their HomePath Mortgage program. HomePath is specifically designed for buyers of Fannie Mae properties. It allows for lower FICO scores, higher LTVs, no MI and it allows borrowers to own up tp 10 investment properties. These guidelines sound like very similar to the guides that got us into this mess in the first place! While I understand that Fannie is trying clear their inventory, it doesn't seem fair that they can have one set of guidelines for properties that they own and another, tougher set for all other properties. I guess it is good to be the king!!

HomePath Mortgage
Specifically for Borrowers Purchasing a
Fannie Mae-Owned Property.

Features and Benefits
• No appraisal required.

• Low credit score requirements.

• Available to both owner-occupiers (primary and second homes) and investors.

• Up to 6% expanded interested party contribution.

• No mortgage insurance required.*

• High maximum LTVs are allowed.

• EA I, II and III accepted.

• Up to 10 financed properties.

HomePath is a registered trademark of Fannie Mae. Geographic, unit and other restrictions may apply. *Ask about cost details on loans without mortgage insurance.

If you would like to learn if you or your client can qualify for this program, please go to www.commodoremortgage.com and fill out a short applcation, and one of our loan officers will contact you to follow up.

I mentioned last week that I was going to a new Harlem bar called Orange 67 Street for the first time, so i thought that I would write a brief follow up. In a word or two: I liked it. Very cool space w/ a chill vibe. The staff was very nice, and the drinks were creative and tasty...though a bit pricey. Many unique ingredients, for example, they don't have any main stream vodka...only organic brands that I had not heard of. It was good...but do I really need organic booze? The small plates were all good. Sliders, sweet potato fries, deviled eggs and the like. I plan to go back, and I hope that the this place does well...Harlem needs all of the new bars and restaurants that it can get!

I came home to my brownstone on 123rd Street in Harlem on Fri afternoon to find helicopters overhead, 10 to 15 firetrucks, dozens of police cars and news vans from all of the local stations. As a New Yorker who was in the City on 9/11, my mind raced with all types of dooms-day scenarios. What I quickly learned was that a wall on of our local pizza joint, Pizzeria 123, had collapsed. It was a southern wall that borders the construction site of a new condo that is being built.: 2280 FDB

From what I have been able to ascertain, concrete that was being pumped fpr the foundation of 2280 FDB pushed through the wall of the pizza joint, and caused the wall to collapse. I have not heard of major injuries, just cuts and bruises. Crews have been working all weekend to get Pizzeria 123 back up and running. Pretty scary stuff, but it could have been a lot worse.

The developer of the project. Hans Futterman, lives on our block. He is am extremely nice guy and i have no reason to believe that he is anything less than a careful and diligent developer, but I know that as the businessman behind the condo project, he is going to catch a ton of grief. There is no reason to believe that this was anything but an accident, and I am sure that the DOB will launch a full investigation to get to the cause. I just hope for Han's sake that this accident does not get the project too far behind schedule. God knows that new projects are under a ton of financial pressure as it is in the current economic climate. I would think that a long delay could do some serious damage to all ready shrinking margins....

Last night was my cousin's birthday (happy 35th Eu!), so she decided to gather some friends for a casual birthday drink in our neighborhood, which is Harlem. My wife and I bought a brownstone on 123rd Street in the spring of 2007 with our cousins. We bought it from a developer who had just completed a gut renovation. He purchased it as a shell, added about 8 feet in depth to the back of the structure and a solarium and roof deck up top. Our cousins have the top 4 floors and we have the lower 3 floors. When we first moved to Harlem from the Upper West Side, we knew that we would miss all of the local restaurants and bars that we grown to love, but we also knew that with time, our new hood in Harlem would begin to see new and interesting nightspots open up. Well finally, it seems to be happening....

Last night we went to a wine bar on Frederick Douglass and 121st Street called Nectar. It has been open for about a year, and it is owned by the same people who own Harlem Vintage, which is a very nice wine store right next door. We showed up at about 8:30, and the place was packed. They have a nice light menu with plenty of choices to nosh on. Wine by the glass was any where from $10-14 , and they had one of my favorite beers, Sugar Hill. It was nice to see a local place doing business on a cold Wednesday night.

Another new restaurant, Chez Lucienne, just opened on the corner of Lenox and 125th Street. The guys who run it have a real restaurant pedigree, (one is from Daniel) and it is lactated on a very busy corner. Early reviews have been off the charts. My wife and I hope to check it out next week. I will report back once we have been there. i am a sucker for French bistros, so my guess is that we will become regulars.

Tonight I am meeting a client who wants to buy in Harlem at a bar that opened two months ago, called Orange 67.Street. It is also on Frederick Douglass, just north of 113th Street. It has a very downtown vibe, with very cool cocktails and a good bar menu. Tonight will be my first visit, so I will report back on this one too.

Harlem is starting to see some additions to the old standbys like Melba's and Moca. As a confessed NYC foodie, I am very psyched! Good thing we have a New York Sports two blocks away so that I can burn off all of the local calories I plan to ingest!!

More and more folks are finding that their FICO scores are being lowered through no fault of their own. Credit card companies, caught in the credit crunch like everybody else, are lowering credit limits of even their best customers. Not only does this lower the amount that a person can charge, it also raises a key mortgage qualification ration: the amount of debt to available credit a person is carrying. By doing this, credit card companies are making their clients look bad in the eyes of the credit reporting agencies, which in effect will make it harder for these otherwise credit worthy people to obtain mortgages. Just anther challenge for the New York City housing market to overcome....

The article from Bloomberg below gos into more detail.

American Express, Chase Cut Card Limits, Lowering Credit Scores

By Alexis Leondis

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Wayne Brown has a dilemma. If he reduces his credit-card balance, American Express Co. will cut his credit limit to the amount of the new balance, he said. If he doesn’t make a big payment, his interest rate may skyrocket.

The credit limits on Brown’s cards have been lowered, which has raised his debt relative to his available credit. This so- called utilization rate is a key factor in determining credit scores. Brown, a 58-year-old construction company owner in San Diego, has seen his credit score drop to 650 from 760 over the past 13 months.

“Interest rates on all of my cards are going up now and my minimum payments are almost doubling because it looks like I’ve maxed out my cards,” said Brown, who uses credit cards to fund his home-building company. “It’s a Catch-22.”

About 45 percent of U.S. banks reduced credit limits for new or existing credit-card customers in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a Federal Reserve January survey of senior loan officers. Financial institutions may slash $2 trillion in credit- card lines in the next 18 months, Meredith Whitney, a former Oppenheimer &; Co. analyst, wrote in a Nov. 30 report.

“You’re no longer immune if you have good credit,” said Curtis Arnold, the founder of CardRatings.com, a Web site that reviews credit cards. “The issuers hold the cards, literally.”

Credit-card issuers such as New York-based American Express, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase &; Co. have cut credit limits to guard against risk and prevent delinquency and charge- off rates from increasing, said Arnold, who is based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Charge-offs are loans the banks don’t expect to be repaid and were 7.1 percent on average in January compared with 4.6 percent a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Pay Off Balances

If credit-card limits are decreased, consumers should pay off balances as quickly as possible, consider making online payments before the monthly statement arrives to reduce debt and weigh transferring balances to a card with a lower rate, said Jeff Blyskal, a senior editor of Consumer Reports. Blyskal, who is based in San Francisco, said consumers should beware of teaser rates and high fees when transferring balances.

“Don’t cancel the card to spite the card company because you’ll just hurt your own credit,” said Emily Peters, San Francisco-based personal finance expert at consumer Web Site credit.com.

Cardholders will damage their credit history if they cancel an older account and lose the available credit on that card, she said. Credit-score companies look at the total amount of debt relative to credit limits on all credit cards when evaluating scores.

$300 Offer

American Express, the largest U.S. credit-card company by purchases, is offering $300 to some customers if they pay their balances in full by April 30 to reduce the risk of defaults.

Chase increased the minimum payment to 5 percent from 2 percent for certain borrowers with large balances, Capital One Financial Corp. increased the rates for new customers on fifteen cards and Citigroup and Bank of America Corp. began charging a 3 percent fee for all transactions made outside the U.S. in U.S. dollars, according to Bill Hardekopf, chief executive officer of LowCards.com, a Web site that compares the rates of almost 1,100 credit cards.

Consumers are falling behind on credit-card payments as U.S. unemployment reached 7.6 percent in January, the highest rate since 1992.

Charge-Off Rates

American Express’s charge-off rates of loans rose to 8.29 percent in January from 7.23 percent a month earlier, a 15 percent increase, based on Bloomberg data. Chase’s charge-off rates increased to 5.94 percent from 5.32 percent, a 12 percent jump.

Desiree Fish, a spokeswoman for American Express, said consumers’ overall debt levels relative to their financial resources is the primary factor for any credit-limit reduction. She declined to comment on the specifics of Brown’s case.

Citigroup is lowering credit limits because of the market environment and deterioration of consumer credit, said Samuel Wang, a spokesman for Citigroup.

Gordon Smith, JPMorgan’s chief executive officer of card services, said at an investor-day presentation on Feb. 26 Chase decreased credit lines or closed accounts in 2008 totaling $129 billion. Credit lines to new and existing customers were increased by $107 billion in 2008, Smith said.

Cardholders most likely to see credit limits slashed have large balances, delinquent payments or recent dips in credit scores, said Arnold of CardRatings.com. Consumers who don’t use their cards very often may also see limits cut because they aren’t profitable for issuers, said Peters of credit.com.

No Advance Notice

Critz George, a retired nuclear engineer and physicist in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said he had three Chase cards and one Citibank card closed because of inactivity, without advance notice. George, 71, said he fears having four lines of credit closed will lower his credit score. “I feel like it was an arbitrary and capricious decision because I have paid in full and on-time for the last 20 years,” he said.

Brown, who is a mortgage broker in addition to his construction business, said he was always careful to keep his balance at one-third of the limit. He said the reduced credit limits on his American Express and Bank of America cards have made that impossible.

“I’m angry because I’ve always been proud of my credit history and now it’s gone to hell, not because of something I’ve done.”