When most people talk about first time home buyer programs or home buyer assistance programs they are almost always talking about Down Payment Assistance Programs (DPAs). DPAs have been around for over a decade and have helped hundreds of thousands of families purchase a home who would have otherwise not been able to. For more specifics on how these programs work please see my blog article “Down Payment Assistance Programs.”
On July 30, 2008 the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 has banned these programs effective October 1, 2008. At a time when the government should be doing everything they can to help qualified homebuyers purchase a home, they are taking away a valuable tool in helping these people aford a home. The down payment is the last obstacle for many families who are otherwise qualfied to purchase a home and responsibly make their mortgage payments. Instead of reforming the use of the programs and creating rules to make them less risky, Cogress decided to ban them all together.
This is going to have a huge adverse effect on the housing market. By some estimates, as many as 40% of all FHA home buyers use DPAs for their down payment. By taking this huge group of homebuyers out of the market, Congress may make the housing crisis even worse or, at least, make it last even longer.
Whether or not you are in the market to buy or sell a home or not, this issue should concern you. If you watch the news or read a newspaper, you hear about the huge financial institutions that seem to be failing every week – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers – the list seems to go on and on. In almost all of the news reports, these companies failures can be at least indirectly attributed to the housing crisis. In order to get the economy back on track, the housing market has to come back.
YOU CAN HELP!
We all need to make our voices heard to our Congressmen and Senators that we believe that the housing market is way too important to the overall health of the economy to elimate this huge group of homebuyers from the market. We need to let them know that we are all in favor of the responsible use of these programs and the implementation of rules to make these programs safer for FHA and the US economy. But we must let them know that we definitely support the continuation of these programs.
Please go to http://rallyforhomeownership.org/ for more information and an easy way to contact your Congressman and Senator. Time is almost up and we cannot afford to wait until the pool of potential home buyers shrinks before we act.
On July 30, 2008 the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 has banned these programs effective October 1, 2008. At a time when the government should be doing everything they can to help qualified homebuyers purchase a home, they are taking away a valuable tool in helping these people aford a home. The down payment is the last obstacle for many families who are otherwise qualfied to purchase a home and responsibly make their mortgage payments. Instead of reforming the use of the programs and creating rules to make them less risky, Cogress decided to ban them all together.
This is going to have a huge adverse effect on the housing market. By some estimates, as many as 40% of all FHA home buyers use DPAs for their down payment. By taking this huge group of homebuyers out of the market, Congress may make the housing crisis even worse or, at least, make it last even longer.
Whether or not you are in the market to buy or sell a home or not, this issue should concern you. If you watch the news or read a newspaper, you hear about the huge financial institutions that seem to be failing every week – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers – the list seems to go on and on. In almost all of the news reports, these companies failures can be at least indirectly attributed to the housing crisis. In order to get the economy back on track, the housing market has to come back.
YOU CAN HELP!
We all need to make our voices heard to our Congressmen and Senators that we believe that the housing market is way too important to the overall health of the economy to elimate this huge group of homebuyers from the market. We need to let them know that we are all in favor of the responsible use of these programs and the implementation of rules to make these programs safer for FHA and the US economy. But we must let them know that we definitely support the continuation of these programs.
Please go to http://rallyforhomeownership.org/ for more information and an easy way to contact your Congressman and Senator. Time is almost up and we cannot afford to wait until the pool of potential home buyers shrinks before we act.
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