DreamKeeper keeps your buyers safe in troubled times.

Would your borrower's ability to make their house payments be impacted by the loss of income from an unexpected job layoff or disability? If so, then Dreamkeeper is a program that all buyers need to know more about.

DreamKeeper is a Mortgage Payment Relief (MPR) Program that:

Protects against the #1 cause of missed mortgage payments and foreclosures - Unexpected involuntary loss of employment.

Protects against the #2 cause of missed mortgage payments and foreclosures - Jobs loss from disability.

Pays your borrower's mortgage payment for up to 8 months.

Payments include principal, interest, taxes and insurance, up to $2000 per month for up to 4 consecutive months.

If you are looking to buy a new home, this program is worth checking into. Click here to contact me for more information on this and other programs available to you now!

First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit: 6 Things you should know.

While the proposed $15,000 home-buyer tax credit died in negotiations between the House and the Senate, the $787 billion stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed into law Tuesday includes a similar--albeit smaller--measure designed to help revive the real estate market. Here are six things you need to know about the freshly-enacted $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit.

1. Eight grand, new buyers: The tax credit included in the economic stimulus legislation is much narrower than the $15,000 proposal. This credit is equivalent to 10 percent of the purchase price of the home--although it's capped at $8,000--and applies only to first-time home buyers and principal residences. But unlike an earlier $7,500 home buyer tax credit, this one does not have to be repaid.

2. First time buyers defined: For the purpose of this legislation, a "first-time home buyer" is someone who hasn't owned a principal residence for three years before buying a house. (The date of purchase is considered the day that the title is transferred.) That means if you've owned a vacation home--but not a principal residence--within the past three years, you would still qualify for the credit.

3. 2009 buyers only: Only those who purchase a home on or after January 1 and before December 1, 2009 are eligible for the credit. Anyone who bought a home last year won't be able to take advantage of it.

4. Income limits: The tax credit is subject to income limitations. Single buyers need a modified adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less to qualify for the full credit, that's $150,000 for married couples. Those earning more than these thresholds may be eligible for reduced credits.

5. Refundable: Because the tax credit is "refundable," qualified buyers can take advantage of it even if they don't have much tax liability.

6. Recapture: Buyers have to own the home for at least three years in order to capitalize on the credit. If they sell the home before then, they will have to return the credit to the government. (Exceptions will be made in certain cases, such as death or divorce.)

Economic Stimulus Package and what it means to you.

Here are some of the highlights, if you can really call them highlights, of President Obamas economic stimulus package. Of course this will affect each individual differently, but in the long run, will this bill stand the test of time? When we look back in 2 years, what will YOU be saying about the so called life saving piece of legislation?

1. Beginning Jan 1, 09 and running through Dec 1, 09 first time home buyers are eligible for an $8,000 tax credit. The main difference between this and the 08 first time home buyers tax credit of $7,500 is that this new tax credit DOES NOT have to be paid back. Sorry all you home first time home buyers in 08, you still have to repay yours, only those that buy in 09 don't, unless they sell their house within 3 years, then guess what, you do. It is for "primary residence" only and the credit phases out for taxpayers whose AGI exceeds $75,000 for individuals or $150,000 for married couples.

2. Low & Middle income workers will get an extra $13 per week on their checks in 09 and an extra $8 per week in 2010.

3. If you are on unemployment, you do not have to pay taxes on the first $2,400 in benefits and you'll receive an extra $25 per week on your check.

4. Health Insurance for the newly unemployed - "Cobra" will go down BUT with a catch. You will have to pay the portion that the employer used to pay meaning your monthly cost could reach an excess of $1,000 while the Gov't will now pay 65% of what the employer used to pay.

5. Food Stamp benefits will rise slightly.

6. Those receiving supplemental income, ie. Social Security, will receive a "One Time" check for $250.

7. If you purchase a new car in 09, you can receive a tax credit if the purchase does not exceed $49,500 and your credit is determined by the individual state sales tax.

These are just a few of the "highlights" of the package, of course there is more, much much more and in the next few days, we will most certainly learn just what we can each expect from it. Better yet, what do you expect to come from this? Do you think this is going to have an immediate impact on our sluggish economy? Or will it have any impact at all? So far it still does not answer the questions that are on the minds of every American, questions like; Why is the price of gasoline going up again when the price of crude oil continues to go down? How is this going to help those that are in the cross hairs of foreclosure? Where are all the jobs going to come from?

Tick Tock Mr. President, You're on the clock!

Downpayment Assistance = Economic Impact

Downpayment assistance (DPA) programs in the U.S. had a major beneficial impact on the economy last year, creating $38.6 billion in revenues, 235,000 jobs, and $4.6 billion in total tax revenues, according to an economic-impact study done by two well-respected California economists, Dr. Robert Waste and Dr. Robert Fountain.

Some highlights of their research:

More than 200,000 new and existing homes were sold last year with DPA. (The research covered the 12 months from December 2007 through November 2008.) Roughly 40% of all loans originated by the Federal Housing Administration used DPA. Nehemiah's DPA program helped families purchase more than 78,000 new and existing homes last year. More than 25% of those sales were on foreclosed homes, effectively taking them off the market. About 40% of the borrowers were households headed by minorities and more than one-third were headed by females. Of 235,000 new jobs created last year, 195,000 came from new-home construction and the rest from new-home sales. DPA also accounted for $4.6 billion in total tax revenues last year.

Opportunity of a Lifetime for First Time Home Buyers

I believe this is such a great opportunity that I decided to re-post the information in hopes that every first time home buyer is aware of this program.

For aspiring home owners who find their goal stubbornly elusive, newly enacted legislation providing a tax credit of as much as $7,500 for first-time home buyers might just be the opportunity of a lifetime. But like so many of the good things in life, time is of the essence for buyers who want to take advantage of this outstanding opportunity. Only homes purchased on or after April 9, 2008 and before July 1, 2009 are eligible. For more information Click Here.

President Obama & HR 600

Below is a copy of an open letter sent to President Obama seeking his support of H.R. 600, the FHA Downpayment Reform Act, recently introduced by Congressman Al Green (D-TX) with bi-partisan support of Representatives Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Gary Miller (R-CA).

For more information about H.R. 600, please go to: http://www.hr600.org/.

January 26, 2009

President Barack Obama

The White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20006

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations on your historic inauguration. Your swearing-in was a defining moment in American history – a moment when our nation lived up to its creed that all men are created equal. We wish you and Congress well in these challenging times.

You are aware of the troubles we face in our economy, particularly our housing market. New homebuyers have vanished. Housing starts are at their lowest level in a half century. More than 2.3 million homes stand vacant in our communities. The loss of homebuyers is weighing down the broader economy, hurting home good stores, mom and pop shops, builders, construction companies, and local governments, all of whom depend on a stable housing economy for revenue. Economists across the political spectrum agree: "the housing market lies at the root of our economic challenges".

So what can we do? To stabilize the housing market, we are proposing common sense solutions that will educate homebuyers and will give credit-ready homebuyers an opportunity for affordable homeownership and incentivize them to enter the market. We hope you will join us.
You stated in December that, “we need to move past the stale arguments that say low-income Americans shouldn’t even try to own a home.”

We agree, Mr. President. And we are ready to help. At a time when most are proposing solutions that cost the taxpayer money, we are supporting no cost bipartisan legislation in Congress (H.R. 600) to reauthorize and reform downpayment assistance programs funded in part by sellers, also known as DPA, which expired under federal law last year. DPA funding from qualified non-profits helped more than one million creditworthy families and individuals become homeowners from 1998 to 2008, and generated $24 billion in economic activity in just a five year period alone, according to a 2007 study by George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis. Further, according to a soon to be released study by Dr. Robert Fountain at California State University, DPA was responsible for creating 235,000 jobs over the past decade and during the twelve months preceding the elimination of DPA helped generate $4.6 billion in local and state tax revenue. These are dollars that state and local economies throughout America have come to rely upon. If this program remains closed, however, more than 300,000 aspiring homeowners – each of whom is deemed creditworthy by the Federal Housing Administration - will be shut out of the home buying process annually and billions of dollars and thousands of jobs will remain out of reach for our local communities. Our economy simply cannot afford this. We respectfully urge you to support H.R. 600, The FHA Downpayment Reform Act.

You stated in your inauguration that we must “end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.” We agree, Mr. President, and we are ready to help. We hope to join hands with your Administration and Congress to find bipartisan support for the policies that will shape our housing market in the future. The past is the past, some people will remain critics of the DPA program and not move past stale arguments that no longer apply; what matters now is our shared pursuit of a more stable economy based on long-term, sustainable homeownership.

You stated in your campaign that we must not repeat “the cycle of bubble and bust” that has plagued our economy. We agree, Mr. President. And we are ready to help. To accomplish such sustainable and responsible homeownership, AmeriDream has educated more than 60,000 potential homebuyers over the last decade and will redouble its education efforts in the coming decade. Studies show that homebuyer education programs lead to more successful homeownership. Further, we believe in FHA’s goal to provide safe, sanitary and affordable housing for low and moderate income families. We believe that if more homebuyers of yesterday chose a FHA insured loan, our country would be better off today. We support a suggestion that you made in 2007 to develop a Home Score system, a system to create a simplified, standardized metric for home mortgage allowing prospective homebuyers to easily compare various mortgage opportunities so that an educated and informed homebuyer can make an educated and informed decision. The more successful our homeowners are, the less likely our economy is to be felled by another housing bubble.

Mr. President, we respectfully ask for your support. We encourage you to back H.R. 600, The FHA Downpayment Reform Act, so that creditworthy working class homebuyers may once again stimulate the housing market. The reauthorization of DPA is supported by the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the National Association of Realtors, The National Association of Mortgage Brokers, the US Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Home Builders, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO - the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, the National Association of Counties, many other state and local organizations and hundreds of thousands of other Americans who have voiced their support to their elected officials. We urge you to make homebuyer education a central part of you economic recovery strategy. Finally, we welcome your commitment to make petty grievances in our government a part of our past. Simply put, our country can afford no less.

We look forward to working with your administration as we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get back to making responsible and sustainable homeownership for all a priority. Best wishes to you, your family, and your Administration in these historic times.

Sincerely,

Ann Ashburn, President

BACKGROUND: AmeriDream, a 501(c)(3) charity, was established in 1999 to provide housing-related programs to low and moderate income individuals and families. Our mission is to permit qualified aspiring homeowners, a disproportionate number of whom are first-time homebuyers, minorities, legal immigrants, women headed households, and single-parents, achieve and sustain homeownership. Most significantly, AmeriDream has provided critical down payment assistance to over 250,000 low and moderate income homebuyers, enabling them to purchase their homes without using any taxpayer dollars. In addition, AmeriDream has educated over 60,000 homebuyers through our homebuyer education course; counseled and assisted approximately 1,200 people to retain their home when confronted with mortgage difficulties; and built 168 affordable housing units in our inner cities, most notably in Southeast Washington, DC. To date, AmeriDream has committed over $30 million to projects unrelated to its down payment assistance program.

Doing things right for America's homebuyers.

AmeriDream, Inc. 200 Professional Drive 4th FloorGaithersburg, MD 20879 Phone: (301) 977-9133Toll Free: (866) 263-7437 (866) AMERIDREAM http://www.ameridream.org/

FHA Refinance Loans Save Borrowers Thousands of Dollars As Interest Rates Hit Record Levels

The average FHA mortgage rate for a thirty-year home loan dropped below 5% this week. Mortgage Brokers Network executive, Steve Park said, “This is a rare opportunity to revive the mortgage industry because interest rates have dropped to record levels that have not been available for the last forty years.” Homeowners across the country realize this rare financing opportunity, so thousands of borrowers are rushing to lock into this monumental era that could spur a much needed home refinancing boom.

Today, the biggest obstacle for most borrowers is credit. In many cases, conventional lenders have credit score requirements seeking credit scores over 680. In this dried up credit markets, even professionals like doctors or lawyers have found it difficult to qualify for a traditional mortgage. If you’re interested in a refinancing mortgage, it is imperative that you have good or excellent credit and the ability to be able to provide documentation for income that lending underwriters deem sufficient.

FHA still offer a refinancing opportunity for borrowers with good or bad credit can qualify for a FHA home loan that is fixed for thirty years. The most popular FHA loan allowing refinancing is the FHA mortgage that requires borrowers to be at 97% loan to value for the standard FHA rate and term refinancing and 95% cash out refinancing would require home owners to have at least 5% left in your home equity. However in some cases the FHA lender will require two appraisals for cash out refinancing above 85% loan to value.

If you have no equity available because of the declining home value, consider the Hope for Homeowners program insured by FHA. This unique program enables homeowners who have mortgage balances greater than the appraised amount. If you are unable to qualify for Hope for Homeowners, consider a loan modification, because credit scores and late payments will not prevent you from renegotiating your mortgage rate. www.contactify.com/b4364