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Great News !
C.A.R. Housing Affordability Fund Launches Mortgage Protection Program April 2
To help provide first-time home buyers with peace of mind when purchasing a home, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Housing Affordability Fund (C.A.R.H.A.F.) is offering a new mortgage protection program to first-time home buyers.
Through the C.A.R. H.A.F’s Mortgage Protection Program, first-time home buyers who lose their jobs due to layoffs may be eligible to receive up to $1,500 per month for up to six months to help make their mortgage payments. A Qualified co-buyer can also participate in this program, for a reduced monthly benefit of $750 per month for up to six months in the event of a job loss. Program benefits also include coverage for accidental disability and a $10,000 death benefit. C.A.R.’s Housing Affordability Fund is dedicating $1 million toward its Mortgage Protection Program, and estimates that up to 3,000 families will benefit from the program this year.
To qualify for the Mortgage Protection Program, applicants must:
· Be a first-time home buyer – someone who has not owned a home in the last three years
· Open escrow April 2, 2009, or later, and close on or before Dec. 31, 2009
· Use a California REALTOR® in the transaction
· Purchase the property in California
· Be a W-2 employee, cannot be self-employed or military personnel
Home buyers must request an application for the H.A.F. Mortgage Protection Program from their REALTOR®.
JPMorgan Chase Opening Loan Modification Centers
By Bruce Spence
Record Staff Writer
March 20, 2009 6:00 AM
STOCKTON - JPMorgan Chase, which merged last fall with Washington Mutual, is gearing up to launch a loan modification center in downtown Stockton today.
The center, one of nine such offices opening in California to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure, is designed to negotiate loan modifications with customers of Chase, Washington Mutual and EMC - a Chase subsidiary.
Community leaders at an open house for the loan center Thursday called the first "face-to-face" center a needed innovation for this part of the Valley, hard hit by foreclosures.
Chase Center
Where: First floor, 400 E. Main St., Stockton.
Who: Counselors will work with homeowners with mortgage loans with Chase, Washington Mutual and EMC.
When: The center will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.
What's needed: Documentation, including recent W-2s, tax forms, pay stubs and bank statements. Also, bring any information, such as a hardship letter, that will help explain your current financial challenges.
For appointments: (209) 460-2450 for those at least 30 days late on their monthly mortgage payments. For those who aren't yet behind on payments but expect to be later, call (866) 550-5705 toll-free.
What: Chase Homeowner Center, where counselors work with homeowners to try to avoid foreclosure by modifying loans.
San Joaquin County Supervisor Carlos Villapudua said he was excited to see the loan center opening.
The community has been looking for answers to foreclosure problems for a while, he said. If you don't have answers, you at least want to offer hope, he said.
"Hope is here," Villapudua said.
Stockton City Councilman Elbert Holman Jr. said the openings of such foreclosure centers where homeowners can talk to bank representatives face to face make Chase a leader in the banking industry. "It really renders hope to our people."
Carol Ornelas, CEO of Visionary Home Builders, which provides free counseling for families struggling against foreclosure, said the Chase center will offer a welcome alternative to trying to negotiate loan modifications in person instead of via phone, fax or mail.
"We don't have that with anybody else right now," she said. "We hope some of the others can follow suit on this."
Much of WaMu's presence in the downtown building - a landmark in downtown Stockton - has shriveled greatly in the past few years because of layoffs at Washington Mutual and then Chase.
The new loan center will occupy a ground-floor section of offices formerly used by human resources staffers. Chase is recommending that homeowners make appointments to talk with one of the seven counselors at the Stockton center.
Earlier this week, a loan center in Oakland drew more than 100 homeowners on the first day trying to get loan modification help.
The loan center is for homeowners who are at least 30 days delinquent in their monthly mortgage payments. Those who aren't yet delinquent but expect to be can get help via a toll-free phone call.
An initial interview with homeowners takes about an hour. The counselors collect the financial information and pass it on to others within Chase who will evaluate the loan. But the bank is promising that homeowners will be told within 30 days whether a loan can be modified enough to make it affordable.
Chase spokesman Gary Kishner said the goal is to find a loan modification that will successfully keep a homeowner in the home long term instead of simply delaying foreclosure.
"We don't want that person to be in the same situation six months from now," he said.
Cynthia Thompson, Western regional manager for Chase Homeowners Centers, said modifications can involve stretching a loan over 40 years or reducing the interest rate.
Chase already has 2,500 people nationwide involved in loan modification counseling, said Diana Nimmo, manager of the Stockton loan center, which will serve customers from San Joaquin County to as far south as Fresno.
Twenty-two such centers opened nationwide this month will add 300 more counselors to that effort, she said.
"Foreclosure is a no-win situation for customers, and it's a no-win situation for Chase as well," she said.
Other California centers are in Sacramento, Oakland, Santa Clara, Glendale, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamunga, Downey and La Mesa/San Diego.
Contact reporter Bruce Spence at (209) 943-8581 or bspence@recordnet.com.
Green News
Sunday, Mar. 22, 2009 Published in the Modesto Bee (www.Modbee.com)
Green rebates offered by local power companies
The Modesto Irrigation District offers rebates to homeowners who purchase energy-efficient products. They include:
- Central air conditioner or heat pumps, $250 per unit
- Air duct sealing, $250 per unit
- Variable speed motor air handler system, $50 per unit
- Whole house fan, $100 per unit
- Solar attic fan, $50 to $100 per unit
- Window sun screen, 75 cents per square foot
- Window film, 75 cents per square foot
- Energy Star-qualified replacement window, $1 per square foot
- Electric water heater tank, $25 per unit
- Attic insulation (electric heat pump required), 17 cents per square foot
- Radiant barrier laminated sheeting for roof, 10 cents per square foot up to $500
- Radiant barrier for attic, 10 cents per square foot up to $500
- Solar photovoltaic electricity generating systems, $2.60 to $3.10 per installed watt, up to 50 percent of the total project cost.
- On the Net: www.mid.org.
The Turlock Irrigation District offers rebates to homeowners who purchase energy-efficient products. They include:
- Solar photovoltaic electricity generating systems, $4 per installed watt
- Window sun screen, $1 per square foot
- Whole house fan, $75
- Shade trees, $20 per tree planted
The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. offers rebates to homeowners who purchase energy-efficient products. They include:
- Solar photovoltaic electricity generating systems, $1.55 per installed watt
- Attic and wall insulation, up to $150 per 1,000 square feet
- Water heater, $30
- Natural gas furnace, $300
- Duct sealing, up to $400
- Room air conditioner, $50
- Variable speed motor air handler system, $50
- Whole house fan, $100
- Cool-roof installation, up to $200 per 1,000 square feet
- Dishwasher, $50
- Multispeed filtration pump and motor for swimming pool, $100
- On the Net: www.pge.com.
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