| Borrowers receive hands-on assistance
A: CHFA's current delinquency rate is 4.96 percent, and our default rate is 1.1 percent. CHFA requires and pays for all of our borrowers to attend homebuyer education. There are very few local servicers left in Colorado. At CHFA, we service all the loans we make. Our servicing operation is a very high-touch business. CHFA offers 30- and 40-year fixed-rate loans. We have never done (adjustable-rate mortgages) or exotic mortgages. When others went to 100 percent financing, CHFA still required our borrowers to invest some cash in the deal. Even if they can only bring $500 or $1,000 to the table, we believe their dollars help to establish a personal commitment to the property. CHFA offers down-payment assistance in the form of a second mortgage to protect the second lien position from predatory lenders.
Kentucky foreclosure rate lower than nation's
Nearly 75 percent more foreclosures were filed nationwide in 2007 than in 2006, but Kentucky's problem was less severe, RealtyTrac reported Tuesday. The state saw a 23.45 percent increase in foreclosures in 2007, including a 19.9 percent decline in filings in the last three months of the year. Nationally, just over 1 percent of all households were in foreclosure at the end of 2007, compared with 0.27 percent of Kentucky's households. RealtyTrac said 5,105 Kentucky properties were in some stage of foreclosure at the end of 2007. Chris Evans, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Kentucky, said falling mortgage rates Ð now typically less than 6 percent for a 30-year fixed rate home loan Ð have been a factor since November.
Fannie label on Denver ominous
Metro Denver's designation as a "declining market" could delay any recovery in the area's long-suffering residential real-estate market, local housing experts said Tuesday. Some mortgage lenders are designating Denver and surrounding counties, excluding Boulder, as a market where prices are declining, upon instruction from Fannie Mae, which backed 41 percent of the nation's home mortgages in the third quarter. Fannie Mae is requiring a 5-percentage-point larger down payment on loans made in declining markets starting in the middle of next month. "When you look at it, it impacts everybody. If you want to sell your property, it becomes more difficult to do that," said Zachary Urban, director of housing counseling with Brothers Redevelopment. First-time buyers and others with minimal savings or equity for a down payment are likely to find themselves knocked out of the market.
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