JUDGES PARTICIPATE IN LOAN MEDIATION HEARINGS

BROUGHT TO YOU BY KIM DUCLOS OF COLDWELL BANKER WARDLEY

KVBC - LAS VEGAS

If you recently received a notice of default on your home, the Nevada Supreme Court and Nevada Legislature have now made it a law that your lender go to mediation.
To prepare dozens of district court judges to act as mediators, they are participating in mock sessions that will help them help you through the process.
News 3's explains how these mediations may help keep thousands of folks in their homes.
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Nearly two dozen judges showed up Friday at UNLV's Boyd School of Law in an effort to learn how to be better mediators.

"What were doing here today is expanding the skill set of our district court judges," says Jennifer Elliott, District Court Judge. "The judges need to learn and the judges know they need to learn. They are here desiring to learn an impartial set of skills."
The reason these judges are practicing now is because soon, they will be asked to mediate hundreds - if not thousands - of foreclosure cases.
Thanks to Assembly Bill 149, it is now Nevada law that all homeowners facing default after July 1 participate in mediation with their lender.
Attorney Ed Bernstein has clients facing foreclosure. He says mediation will end up helping thousands of families to stay in their homes.
And the best part is that it's simple to apply and affordable, only costing $200.
"This system is so simple," says Bernstein. "Our supreme court has done a great job. They've made it easy and the form - any layman can fill out the form. You don't need to be an attorney."
Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court, James Hardesty, hopes that these mediations will stop the rising number of foreclosures in the Silver State.
"My hope is that lenders and borrowers will get together and reach reasonable economic decisions about how best to handle the residence they've got."
The entire mediation process, beginning with when you apply and lasting until a decision is reached should take no more than 90 days. Anyone receiving a notice of default since July 1 will receive a mediation application in the mail.
For more information, visit the Nevada Judiciary web site.
The Saving You Money Team also wants to let you know about two foreclosure workshops to help you stay in your home.
The Hope Now Foreclosure Prevention Workshop is happening Friday until 8 pm and Saturday from 9 am to 2 pm at the Aliante Station Casino in the Scottsdale Ballroom. You'll be able to meet face-to-face with a housing counselor and discuss your best options.
Best of all, this workshop is free and open to the public.
Also, there is another educational event that will help lay out all of your options, explain what loan modification is, and help you recognize what to watch out for if you go to a loan modification company.
It's being held at the AAA Home Rescue Office on Sunset Road near Jones and the 215 Beltway. This workshop begins at 11 am on Saturday.

$8000 TAX CREDIT CAN BE USED ON CLOSING COSTS

HUD: Tax Credit Can Be Used on Closing Costs FHA-approved lenders received the go-ahead to develop bridge-loan products that enable first-time buyers to use the benefits of the federal tax credit upfront, according to eagerly awaited guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on so-called home buyer tax credit loans that was released today.Under the guidance, FHA-approved lenders can develop bridge loans that home buyers can use to help cover their closing costs, buy down their interest rate, or put down more than the minimum 3.5 percent.The loans can't be used to cover the minimum 3.5 percent, senior HUD officials told reporters on a conference call Friday morning. Thus, buyers applying for FHA-backed financing with an FHA-approved lender that offers a bridge-loan program can get a bridge loan to bring down the upfront costs of buying a home significantly but would still have to come up with the minimum 3.5 percent downpayment.There remain many sources of assistance for buyers needing help with the 3.5 percent downpayment, including many state and local government instrumentalities and nonprofit lenders.In addition, some state housing finance agencies have developed their own tax credit bridge loan programs, so buyers in states whose HFAs offer such programs can monetize the tax credit upfront to cover all or part of their downpayment. These programs are separate from what HUD announced today. The first-time homebuyer tax credit was enacted last year--and improved upon earlier this year--to help encourage households to enter the housing market while interest rates are low and affordability is high. The credit is worth up to $8,000 and is available to households that haven't owned a home in at least three years. The credit does not have to be repaid, and is fully reimbursable, so households can get their credit returned to them in the form of a payment.Learn more about the credit, including how to apply for it this year even if you've already filed your taxes, at REALTOR.org.

Source: Robert Freedman, REALTOR® Magazine Online

The Nation's Housing Lawmakers Move To Expand Buyer Credit

By Kenneth R. Harney

If first-time buyers are getting thousands of dollars in tax credits from the federal government to stimulate the economy, why shouldn't all home buyers get equal treatment? And what about refinancers? Couldn't they make good use of a tax credit to help defray closing costs and loan fees?

Whatever your thoughts on these questions, there is an effort getting underway in Congress to extend tax credits to anyone who buys a new or existing home in the coming year, with no income limitations. In one case, legislation would even create a new "temporary" $3,000 tax credit to help defray the costs of refinancing mortgages on principal residences.

Two Dallas-area members of Congress, a Democrat and a Republican, have introduced bills that not only would broaden the reach of the current housing tax credits to almost everybody, but would also keep the program going until either mid-2010 or the end of that year. The current credit expires Nov. 30.

Rep. Kenny Marchant, a Republican who represents suburbs between Fort Worth and Dallas, is pushing a bill that would expand the current $8,000 federal credit to buyers of all houses, not just first-timers, through June 2010. The bill (H.R. 2619) would also create an unprecedented $3,000 credit to help offset "qualified refinancing costs" -- closing fees, lender charges and the like -- through next June.

In a statement, Marchant said his goals are to boost sales, reduce inventory and stabilize prices. The refinancing credit, he said, is designed to encourage owners "to take advantage of current low mortgage rates" and cut their monthly payments to stay out of financial trouble. The $3,000 refi credit could be used to pay for loan "points" or other transaction fees or to "put equity in their home if they're a little underwater."

Marchant's colleague Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Democrat who represents downtown Dallas, has introduced the Home Buying Credit Expansion Act (H.R. 2606), which would extend the current credit through Dec. 31, 2010. The bill would also open the credit to all buyers of principal residences but would not provide any new tax incentives to stimulate refinancings.

The near-simultaneous introduction of tax-credit-expansion bills appeared to put the two most potent housing lobbies -- the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders -- into a political quandary. On the one hand, any broadening of tax incentives for home buying would be good news for their builder and realty broker members.
On the other hand, any public perception that the expiration date for the current credit might be extended could cause some potential buyers to delay purchases. And if all would-be buyers might be eligible for some future federal tax credit -- not just first-timers -- large numbers of consumers might just stay on the sidelines, waiting for that better deal to come out of Congress.
The National Association of Home Builders "does not want anything that would stop the traction the current credit is now getting," a spokesman said. "We think it would be more appropriate to address [an extension or other changes] closer to the credit deadline" in the months ahead.
But Mary Trupo, public policy director for the National Association of Realtors, said her 1.1-million-member group sees it differently.

"We say: If it is working for first-time home buyers, then why not for all buyers, with no income limitations? We would like to see the expiration date extended. Expanding the credit is really the way to stabilize the market -- by making it available to everybody."

Trupo said that first-time buyers accounted for one-half of all purchasers in March -- up from one-third in January -- and that increase is directly attributable to the tax credit.
The association has no hard estimate of what effect expanding the credit to all buyers would have on total sales. But Jed Smith, managing director for quantitative research, said earlier projections about the first-time-buyer credit ranged into the hundreds of thousands of additional sales. Broadening the credit to all buyers would almost certainly push the total higher.
Where is this all headed? Don't look for any immediate action on Capitol Hill. The legislative calendar is jammed already, the budget deficit is at all-time levels, the summer recess looms, and neither of the tax credit bill sponsors sits on the Ways and Means Committee, which must originate all tax legislation.

But later this year, you can bank on it: There will be a significant push to extend the housing tax credit -- and maybe even open it up to everybody.