Search results matching tags 'Events' and 'Finances'

Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) Reports on $24.6 BB to New York

248906 — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:14:00 GMT

New York is expected to receive $24.6 Billion in funds from the recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Obama. New York Congresswoman Nita Lowey met with the Westchester Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to outline opportunities for local initiatives in many areas, including housing. Below is a summary of housing programs available in New York State. Congresswoman Lowey encourages you to visit http://www.economicrecovery.ny.gov/ to submit specific projects for consideration or for more information on available funds. Here is your bailout.

Grants: Public Housing Authorities for Capital Needs Grants

Amount: $4 billion

Type: $3 Billion States receive funding through a formula

$1 billion was also included for competitive grants

Office: Office of Public and Indian Housing - Office of Capital Improvements

Agency: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Description: Funds to Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) for building repair and modernization, including critical safety repairs.

Website: http://www.hud.gov/offices/pih/programs/ph/capfund/ocir.cfm

HUD Recovery State Formulas: http://www.hud.gov/offices/pih/programs/ph/capfund/grants/arra/index.cfm

Grants: Homelessness Prevention Fund

Amount: $1.5 billion

Type: States and localities receive funding through a formula

Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development

Purpose: Funding provides short-term homeless prevention assistance to those losing their housing.

Website: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/programs/esg/

HUD Recovery State Formulas: http://www.hud.gov/recovery/tcap.cfm

Grants: Community Development Block Grants

Amount: $1 billion was included in formula funds to be distributed to local communities and states for community development and affordable housing activities.

Type: States and localities receive funding through a formula

Administrator: Department of Housing and Urban Development

Description: Funding for community and economic development projects including housing and services for those hit hard by tough economic times.

Website: http://www.hud.gov/recovery/cdblock.cfm

HUD Recovery State Formulas: http://www.hud.gov/recovery/tcap.cfm

Grants: Neighborhood Stabilization Program

Amount: $2 billion

Office : Office of Community Planning and Development

Agency: U.S. Department Of Housing and Urban Development

Type: Competitive Grants

Description: Help communities purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed, vacant properties in order to create more affordable housing and reduce neighborhood blight.

Website: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/communitydevelopment/programs/neighborhoodspg/

HUD Recovery State Formulas: http://www.hud.gov/recovery/tcap.cfm

Grants: Lead Hazard Reduction Program

Amount: $100 million

Office: Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control

Agency: U.S. Department Of Housing and Urban Development

Type: Competitive Grants

Description: Funds for competitive grants to local governments and nonprofit organizations to remove lead based paint hazards in low-income housing.

Website: http://www.hud.gov/offices/lead/grantprograms.cfm

HUD Recovery State Formulas: http://www.hud.gov/recovery/tcap.cfm

Grants: Native American Housing

Amount: $510 Million for rehabilitation and energy efficiency upgrades at housing maintained by Native

American housing programs

Agency: U.S. Department Of Housing and Urban Development

Type: $255 Million through a formula

$255 Million for competitive grants

Eligibility: Eligible applicants include Indian tribes or tribally designated housing entities (TDHEs) eligible to receive funding under NAHASDA (25 U.S.C. 4101 et seq.)

Website: http://www.hud.gov/recovery/native-american-formula.cfm

HUD Recovery State Formulas: http://www.hud.gov/recovery/tcap.cfm

Grants: HOME Investment Partnership Program

Amount: $2.25 billion

Agency: U.S. Department Of Housing and Urban Development

Type: Funds will distributed by formula to states

Description Funds will provide state and local governments with funds to create and rehabilitee affordable housing

Website: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/affordablehousing/programs/home/

HUD Recovery State Formulas: http://www.hud.gov/recovery/tcap.cfm

Grants: Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP)

Amount: $2.25 billion

Agency: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Type: Funds will distributed by formula to 52 State Housing Credit Agencies

Description: Funding for capital investment in Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects via a formula-based allocation to State housing credit allocation agencies

Website: http://www.hud.gov/recovery/tax-credit.cfm

Grants: Home Weatherization Assistance Program

Amount: $5 billion

Agency: U.S. Department of Energy and Housing and Urban Development

Type: States receive funding through a formula

Description: Funds to assist low-income families reduce their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient

Website: http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/weatherization/doe_guidelines.cfm

State Contact Info: http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/weatherization/state_contacts.cfm

Grants: Rural Housing Insurance Fund

Amount: $200 million

Agency: USDA - Rural Development - Rural Housing Service

Type: Direct and guaranteed loans

Description: Funds to insure or guarantee rural housing loans for single-family homes, rental and cooperative housing, and rural housing sites

Website: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rhs/

Forms: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/regs/formstoc.html

Grants: Rural Community Facilities

Amount: $130 million

Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture - State Rural Development Office

Type: Competitive Grants

Description: Funds to support grants and loans to rural areas for critical community facilities, such as for healthcare, education, fire and rescue, day care, community centers, and libraries.

Website: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rhs/cf/cp.htm

10 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis

248906 — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:38:00 GMT

How did the world’s most powerful economy get so bad? TIME Magazine published their list of people their readers think should carry blame for the current financial crisis. The list was voted on by Time magazine readers and contains the top ten vote getters. Here are the worst offenders. Did these people make your list? I bet you hadn’t heard of number one.

10. Kathleen Corbet: She ran Standard & poor’s, the nation’s largest rating agency during much of this decade. How did some of our current bankrupted and bailed-out corporations receive continuous AAA seals of approval on large portions of even the riskiest pools of loans for all that time? Hummm. Rating agencies helped lure investors into loading on collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that are now unsellable. Couldn’t she see the glaring conflict of interest? (Her company is paid for their ratings by the bond issuer.) As one S&P analyst wrote in an email, "[A bond] could be structured by cows and we would rate it."

9. Frank Raines: A former Clinton Administration Budget Director, Raines was the first African-American CEO of a Fortune 500 company when he took the helm of Fannie Mae in 1999. He left in 2004 with the company embroiled in an accounting scandal just as it was beginning to make big investments in subprime mortgage securities that would later tank. Last year Fannie and rival Freddie Mac were saved from insolvency by the tax-payers.

8. Ian McCarthy: The CEO of Beazer Homes has become an icon for bad builders. Why blame a home builder? An investigative series that ran in the Charlotte Observer in 2007 highlighted Beazer's aggressive sales tactics, including lying about borrowers' qualifications to help them get loans. The FBI, Department of Housing and Urban Development and IRS are all investigating Beazer. Beazer Homes has admitted that employees of its mortgage unit violated regulations as far back as 2000.

7. Joe Cassano: A credit-default swap (CDS) is an insurance contract — or, if you prefer, a bet — that a company will pay its debt. Cassano, a founding member of AIG's financial-products unit, ran the group until he stepped down in early 2008. AIG's gigantic CDS contracts turned out to be at the heart of AIG's downfall and subsequent rescue. You, the tax-payer have lent $150 billion to keep AIG afloat. Thanks Joe.

6. Hank Paulson: The ex-Goldman Sachs exec turned Treasury Secretary in 2006, ended up almost single-handedly running the country's economic policy for the last year of the Bush Administration. Love him or hate him, the three main gripes against Paulson are that he was late to the party in battling the financial crisis, letting Lehman Brothers fail was a big mistake and the big bailout bill he pushed through Congress has been a wasteful mess. I can’t really fault him, but he was all up in the kool-aid.

5. American Consumers: Yes, It’s all your fault. You’ve been borrowing, borrowing, borrowing — to live beyond your means. You invested in stocks (how did that go?) You bought real estate (I know how that went). Your household debt, the money you owe as individuals, ballooned to more than 130% of income in 2007. That’s borrowing to spend. China will be coming to collect soon.

4. Chris Cox: The ex-SEC chief's was supposed stop fraud and keep the market honest. How do you think he did? Under his watch we had the Madoff scandal plus a bunch of mini-Madoffs, poor disclosure on big investment banks like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. Cox says his agency lacked authority to limit the massive leveraging that set up last year's financial collapse. Really Chris? You oversaw dwindling SEC staff and a sharp drop in action against traders. Say it ain’t so.

3. Alan Greenspan: The Federal Reserve chairman — Washington’s wizard. He had some great successes in the 1990’s and became beyond reproach. He lands on the list for one reason. He admitted in a recent congressional hearing that he had "made a mistake in presuming" that financial firms could regulate themselves. Thanks for leaving the foxes in charge of the chickens.

2. Phil Gramm: As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee from 1995 through 2000, Gramm was Washington's most prominent and outspoken champion of financial deregulation. He played a leading role in writing and pushing through Congress the 1999 repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banks from Wall Street. He also inserted a key provision into the 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act that exempted over-the-counter derivatives like credit-default swaps from regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. No regulation = no protection for the public.

1. Angelo Mozilo: I didn’t know this guy’s name until recently. Mozilo co-founded Countrywide, which was the largest mortgage lender in the country. Countrywide championed the ownership society, whether you could afford it or not. The housing bust, which toppled Countrywide and Indy Mac Bank (another company Mozilo started), sent him packing with a golden parachute. Mozilo left Countrywide last summer after its rescue-sale to Bank of America. A few months later, Bank of America said it would spend up to $8.7 billion to settle predatory lending charges against Countrywide filed by 11 state attorneys general. Bottom line: Don’t sell mortgages to people that you know can’t afford them. Isn’t that why we’re in this mess?

If one of your top ten is not on this list, then… AskRey.

Economic Stimulus Act 2008 Signed

248906 — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:02:00 GMT

February 13, 2008 President Bush signed the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 into law. The act hailed by the National Association of Realtors should give a much needed boost to the housing market. The new act raises the loan limits guaranteed by Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and government sponsored enterprises (GSE) mortgage limits in 2008. Although the limits are well below the average price of a Westchester home, many homebuyers and home owners will benefit from these raised limits. Here is how you can benefit.

If you are looking to purchase property up to $417,000, then you qualify for an FHA guaranteed home that can get you a lower interest rate. The maximum FHA loan limit has been increased to $729,750. Sellers will benefit because buyers may get better rates with these increases, allowing them to purchase previously unaffordable homes.

“We believe the economic stimulus bill that Congress sent to the president today is strong legislation that will quickly impact the nation’s families and economy,” said NAR President Richard Gaylord. “We are pleased that both the Federal Housing Administration and the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits have been increased, even if only temporarily. This will be a major stimulus for the housing industry and for people who want to own a home.”

An economic impact study conducted by NAR earlier this month estimated that increasing the GSEs’ conforming loan limits would result in as many as 500,000 refinanced loans and could help reduce foreclosures by as much as 210,000. In addition, over 300,000 additional home sales could be generated, housing inventory would be reduced and home prices would be strengthened by two to three percentage points.

The deal, passed in the Senate on an 81-16 vote, includes rebate check amounts of $300 to $600 for people who have an income between $3,000 and $75,000, plus $300 per child. Couples earning up to $150,000 would get $1,200. But the plan also gives checks to more than 20 million Social Security beneficiaries and 250,000 handicapped veterans and their widows.

If you would like to find out if these loan limits can help you purchase your next home…AskRey.