I’m From the Government, and I’m Here to Help
Scripps News
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/35562
A countdown clock on a Web site operated by Nehemiah Corp. of America is ticking off the days, hours, minutes and seconds until a new government ban will terminate virtually all seller-funded down payment assistance programs in the United States. But the clock may be stopped, now that a bill that would reverse the ban has been introduced in Congress.
The clock will tick off its last second Oct. 1, the last day when homebuyers will be able to use seller-funded down payment assistance with any mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Administration, or FHA, a division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, known as HUD.
More than 1 million buyers and sellers have utilized these programs, according to industry figures. The two largest organizations, Nehemiah in Sacramento, Calif., and AmeriDream in Gaithersburg, Md., have processed more than 300,000 and 250,000 transactions, respectively, according to company statements.
Indeed, seller-funded down payments have become so closely associated with FHA-backed mortgages that more than 33 percent of loans backed by the agency last year included such assistance, according to FHA data. The agency is still working out the details of how the ban will be implemented, says HUD spokesman Lemar Wooley.
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If it works then Congress will break it. Has anybody in Congress given any thought to what this idiotic ban would do to home resale prices?
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