HUD Orlando Highlights Fall 2010

Welcome to the Fall edition of HUD Orlando Highlights. It includes several items that we think merit your attention. You will note in this edition items related to sustainability. Building sustainable communities where transportation, housing, education, healthcare and recreation are linked to improve quality of life is critically important to Central Florida, and several HUD programs are addressing this challenge.

Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. We will value your input on how to improve the content or on HUD programs in general. -- Buz Ausley, Orlando Field Office Director

Lenders Wanted for Pilot Program: FHA PowerSaver

Improving American homes to make them more energy efficient simultaneously reduces homeowners’ utility bills, expands the number of green jobs, and allows more homeowners to live in greener, healthier homes. But several barriers, including a lack of financing options for energy-efficient retrofits, have prevented a self-sustaining retrofit market from forming.

Vice President Joe Biden and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced a new mortgage insurance product to help it happen: FHA PowerSaver will extend financing for credit-worthy borrowers to make cost-effective, energy-saving improvements to their homes. It will begin as a two-year pilot program launching in early 2011, and HUD is seeking a limited number of lenders to participate. To be eligible, lenders must be approved participants in either the FHA Title I or Title II programs. If selected, lenders will be required to target PowerSaver loans to markets that have already taken affirmative steps to expand home energy improvements. FHA and the Department of Energy (DOE) will help lenders identify eligible target markets.

FHA has carefully designed the PowerSaver product to meet the marketplace need for retrofit financing while ensuring that FHA is not subjected to unnecessary risks. It is important to note that PowerSaver loans will only be available to borrowers with credit scores of at least 660, total debt-to-income ratios no higher than 45 percent, and combined loan-to-value ratios (including the PowerSaver loan) of no more than 100 percent.

These new FHA PowerSaver loans will offer homeowners up to $25,000 to make energy-efficient improvements of their choice, including the installation of insulation, duct sealing, doors and windows, HVAC systems, water heaters, solar panels, and geothermal systems.

Lenders interested in participating must submit an Expression of Interest using the template and following the instructions provided in the Federal Register Notice on HUD’s website. FHA will host two live webcasts that will give interested lenders an overview of the program and an opportunity to ask questions. Webcast schedules and instructions for registering will be available on HUD’s website.

Sustainable Urban Housing Award

If solutions to create affordable housing are in your mind, join the conversation! Present your idea before February 2nd , 2011, and in the process participate in a competition that will make you proud and maybe even get you some money -- the best entries will receive cash prizes. The Sustainable Urban Housing Award has been announced in anticipation of the 2012 Summit of the Americas, and in support of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Energy and Climate Partnership for the Americas (ECPA). It is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, and is a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of State, and the American Planning Association.

The organizers, Ashoka’s Changemakers, are looking for innovative solutions that engage communities, entrepreneurs, and key institutions in collaborating to integrate and develop affordable, inclusive, and sustainable urban housing that respects the environment, local cultures, and practices. Learn more about this urban design award. The most competitive entries will be showcased and reviewed at an event that closes the competition in June 2011 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. where they will be viewed by public and private partners, including prospective funders.

Homeownership: Back to Basics, in Video

Engage future home buyers to learn the basics of homeownership, from shopping for a home that is affordable, to shopping for a loan and closing the deal. HUD partnered with the National Association of Realtors to educate the consumers. Each video will help navigate a critical part of the home-buying process and will enable them to make informed decisions at each step. All three videos are available on HUD’s YouTube channel.

Shopping for your Home- informs potential homebuyers how to assess how much home they can afford, how to work with a real estate agent and what to do when they find the home they want to purchase. It also discusses the role housing counselors can play in assisting with issues including home buying, fair housing, and foreclosure prevention.

Shopping for your Loan- teaches how to use the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) to identify key loan terms and costs for a particular offer. The video also advises potential homebuyers to compare GFEs from multiple lenders to determine the best loan for them.

Closing the Deal- walks consumers through the closing process and shows them how to use the HUD-1 Settlement Statement and GFE to ensure the loan they were offered closely matches the one they receive at closing. Watch the videos and share the link.

Lower Costs on Reverse Mortgages

Over the last 20 years, FHA has endorsed plenty of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages – “reverse mortgages”. There’s good reason to think HECM’s will remain one of FHA’s fastest-growing products. Noting that “some senior citizens find that our fees” for FHA’s HECM “are too high for them,” FHA Commissioner David Stevens has announced a new option – HECM Saver – that “significantly lowers costs by almost eliminating the upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP) required in a standard HECM.”

Under the new HECM Saver – available for all HECM applications assigned a case number on or after October 4th – borrowers will receive 10 to 18 percent less than under a standard HECM which allows FHA to lower the upfront premium to just .01 percent – compared to 2 percent for a standard HECM – without exposing FHA’s Insurance Fund to additional risk. The MIP for both HECM Saver and HECM Standard will be charged monthly at an annual rate of 1.25 percent of the outstanding loan balance. For more, read FHA mortgagee letter 2010-34.

Funds Available, Apply Now

Approximately $15 million is available for HUD’s FY2010 Public and Indian Housing Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency Program (ROSS). Its purpose is to promote the development of local strategies to coordinate the use of assistance under the Public Housing program with public and private resources, enable participating families to increase earned income and financial literacy, reduce or eliminate the need for welfare assistance, and make progress toward achieving economic independence and housing self-sufficiency. Awards will pay only for the annual salary and fringe benefits of Family Self-Sufficiency Coordinators. Award amounts will be based on locality pay rates for similar professions. Each new or renewal position amount will not exceed $69,000. Apply before January 19, 2011. Find out all the details.

The office of Public and Indian Housing also announced approximately $35 million in funding to develop facilities to provide early childhood education, adult education, and/or job training programs for public housing residents based on an identified need for such facilities. Housing authorities may use the funds for construction of new facilities or rehabilitation of existing structures. The maximum amount of each grant award is $5 million. It is anticipated that 12 grant awards will be made. Deadline for application is Friday, January 14, 2011.

Applicants need to be aware that following receipt, applications go through a validation process in which the application may be accepted or rejected and must allow time for this process to ensure that their applications meet the timely receipt requirements. Please see the 2010 General Section for instructions for timely receipt, including actions to take if the application is rejected. The General Section contains information on using Adobe Reader, HUD’s timely receipt policies, and other application information. Read all the requirements.

Bookmark this site: www.Grants.gov

Visualizing Housing Information

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research offers a Thematic Map Tool featuring four interactive maps of housing information. The maps display easy-to-access information used by housing researchers, city planners, industry professionals, public housing authorities, and those seeking Section 8 housing qualifications. Each user-friendly map includes color-coding, zoom features, and a "tooltip" that displays a callout box on mouseover, containing the selected area's name and map-specific data.

The Median Household Income map lists the area median income (AMI) for any county in the nation. Selecting the desired area, the user is provided with a tooltip containing the name of the county, its median income for a family of four, and the qualifying income limits for very low-, extremely low-, and low-income families. The Building Permits map displays the number of permits for single- and multifamily residential construction issued by about 21,000 jurisdictions in 2010. The information is extracted from HUD USER's State of the Cities Data Systems, which contains multiple databases covering metropolitan areas, central cities, and suburbs.

The Metropolitan Area Vacancy map(s) offer a regional or metropolitan statistical area perspective on residential and business vacancies using mail delivery data from the U.S. Postal Service. Through a special agreement with the U.S. Postal Service, HUD receives quarterly Address Management System extracts of the number of addresses identified by mail carriers as vacant or inactive and compiles these data to the census tract level. The Housing Problems of Low Income Households map displays the percentage of families in counties that earn less than 50 percent of the AMI and reside in substandard conditions (housing units lacking a kitchen or plumbing), overcrowded dwellings (those with more than one person per room), or that face housing cost burdens (families paying more than 30 percent of gross income toward housing).

HUD Resources

The Southeast Community Outreach Initiative of the Department of Housing and Urban Development is here to serve as a resource for educational, faith-based, and non-profit organizations seeking to partner with HUD to address the housing and community development needs of the neighborhoods in which you operate. These needs include neighborhood revitalization, housing, and economic development, principally for persons of low- and moderate-income. We are here to build partnerships and serve as a liaison between your organization and the federal government, ensuring that you have the latest information about HUD opportunities and programs as well as other federal resources available to your communities.

HUD has also launched a new web resource page for you to access the latest news on grants, HUD programs and events in the southeast region. The website is a work in progress and we value your input on how to make the website more valuable to you. Please visit the new Community Outreach website at www.hud.gov/seoutreach. We will be adding new content regularly.

In the Southeast your HUD contact is Mykl Asanti. You can reach Mykl at (678)732-2021 or by email at seoutreach@hud.gov