For those of you not familiar with the recent housing bill that will eliminate downpayment assistance, please read up on this important issue. The Senate and House of Representatives are fast-tracking this bill. Many home buyers are familiar with the idea of getting into a home with no money down. Many home buyers are familiar with the idea of being able to have the seller of a home cover your closing costs and some or all of your down payment. This may be going away. 

In a recent quote from Scott C. Syphax, President & CEO of Nehemiah Corporation of America “By FHA's own estimates, down payment assistance (DPA) comprises nearly 40% of FHA's volume. This means more than 300,000 working class families will be locked out of homeownership in the next year alone.”

This is, in my opinion, an example of looking at certain facts but then drawing bad conclusions. If you give someone an option of getting into a house without spending any money, OF COURSE they’re going to take that option. The conclusion everyone seems to be drawing here is that the end of DPA would mean that all those people won’t buy houses if they’re required to make a down payment. In my experience, this is simply not true. Would they have to save a bit of money, borrow from family, be creative…etc? Yes. So what? People who understand the values of homeownership will buy homes. And they will buy homes within their means.

FHA estimates that 40% of their volume comes from DPA deals. So how many of those deals overextended buyers and put them into homes that they ultimately cannot afford or homes they can barely afford? How many of those homes will be on the reo list in 2-3 years? One thing that never gets said is that of all the foreclosures we’ve been seeing, the vast majority of them are from DPA and various 100% financing deals done in recent years. If DPA gets dropped, will it mean considerable change in the real estate world? Yes. Will it mean the end of civilization as we know it? No. C’mon guys, we have to stand back, take stock and realize we’ve become addicted to easy loans, easy purchases and easy sales. It’s understandable. But as I look out at the landscape of today’s market, I have to say that some change is welcome.