New Government Program to Benefit Florida Homeowners

The new government back mortgage refinancing resource, FHASecure, has helped almost 3,000 Floridians to stay in their homes. According to HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, a family with good credit can finance into a safer loan, and even those hopeful homebuyers with delinquent status can now qualify for an FHA loan. These government insured loans offer reliability and affordability not previously available, and have been able to help over 76,000 Americans nationwide since fall of 2007. To educate homeowners and homebuyers, HUD is also sponsoring foreclosure prevention workshops across the country. For more information on FHASecure loans and foreclosure prevention workshops, please visit: http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr08-013.cfm

$38.5 Billion Budget for 2009 Sought by Bush Administration

According to HUD, the Bush administration has recently sought a budget of $38.5 Billion, in addition to an additional $1 Billion for housing counseling, affordable housing, and the homeless. This request represents a nine percent increase over the President’s proposed budget for 2008, in hopes to protect homeowners facing foreclosure, to provide more affordable rental housing, and to support those individuals and families that are without homes. Part of this effort involves a notable transformation by the FHA to provide homebuyers with better alternatives to high cost, high risk loans, as well as presenting permanent housing subsidies and case management services to homeless veterans with substance addictions and mental disorders, to name a couple. To view the complete list of changes and effects that the Bush administration hopes to achieve with the increased budget, please visit.: http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr08-014.cfm&CFID=4115041&CFTOKEN=52052542

Fall in Housing Market Affects Construction, Economy

With the prices of homes falling and new-home sales decreased to a rate of less than half that of two years ago, construction spending has fallen to a new low. While it is unlikely that residential investment will continue the steady decline that was seen in 2007, there is a risk that the fallen value of real estate could impact property tax revenues for many local governments. According to the New York Times, the result could be a notable reduction in the number of new developments and building contracts by companies and local governments, thereby imposing decreased spending on our total economy. For the full story on the housing market and construction, please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/business/02chart.html?scp=120&sq=February+2%2C+2008&st=nyt