Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

November 30th is the last day to take advantage of this $8,000 first-time homebuyers credit. Homes in Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, West Richland and surrounding areas are a great buy right now and mortgage rates are low, so you’ll want to get onboard to get qualified for this opportunity!!

To get a good understanding of what all is involved in this process, please watch this video which should give you a better feel for how this credit works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VFV5MNTWPY

The Tri-City economy has mostly held its own during the national recession, but unexpected medical bills, job loss, divorce and other hardships mean some homeowners are struggling to make mortgage payments.

Loan modifications, which usually involve rearranging the terms or length of the mortgage, are one method the federal government, housing counselors and lenders are using to help people keep their homes.

The administration earlier this year introduced the Making Home Affordable program, which was designed to help 7 million to 9 million homeowners refinance or modify their mortgages to more affordable levels.

More than 230,000 modifications are in the trial stage, according to the Making Home Affordable website. The modification program is on pace to assist 3 millions to 4 million homeowners in the next three years, the site said.

The program is helping, said Liza Beam, housing program director for Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Kennewick.

“Even though mortgage companies are willing to work with people, they’re way behind,” she said.

The process often takes three to six months, Beam said.

About 70 clients in trouble with their mortgage payments have received counseling at CCCS since October, said Laurie Tufford, the agency’s chief executive director. CCCS is approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide mortgage counseling services.

It used to be borrowers needed to be 90 days behind on payments before lenders would work to make changes, but now mortgage companies are becoming more lenient, she said,

The Making Home Affordable refinance program targets homeowners who are current on payments but haven’t been able to refinance because their homes values have dropped, according to the program’s website.

“There’s still people who fall through the cracks, but I think it’s making a difference,” Beam said.

Tufford explained that modifications come in a variety of forms.

A forbearance allows missed payments to be divided up into smaller chunks and paid off incrementally, along with regular payments, she said.

Sometimes interest rates are lowered and other times the length of the loan is extended.

There are some cases when homeowners simply can’t afford to keep the house.

“Sometimes keeping the house isn’t the best option.” Beam said.

In an attempt to increase assistance to borrowers, HUD announced last month that its Federal Housing Administration is changing its loan modification program to align with Making Home Affordable, according to the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions.

Through the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, qualified FHA borrowers can start the process of modifying the loan before they get drastically behind on payments, said HUD spokesman Lee Jones.

He called the new alignment between FHA’S program and the Making Home Affordable “a bit more aggressive.”

“Making Home Affordable is essentially nothing more than getting the lenders and the borrowers at the same table to change the loan, Jones said. “It allows the borrower to have a conversation with the lender…before they get into real trouble.”

Lenders who are FHA-approved already agree to participate in services to help troubled borrowers who get three months behind in their loans.

One tool to lower monthly payments is a partial claim, which involves lenders allowing borrowers to pay principal and interest on only part of the loan, Jones said.

For a $100,000 loan, for example, a partial claim might allow a borrower to pay on $75,000, while the other $25,000 is deferred until the house is sold, he said.

Jones didn’t know how big the program’s benefits would be, but said its success depends mostly on troubled borrowers making the first move.

And persistence is key, said Dee Taylor, director of the Homeownership Division of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, which helps direct funding to housing counselors.

“I think they will work,” she said. “You just have to be persistent and really get the lender to cooperate.”

Mark Manthei, a broker for Arboretum Mortgage in Kennewick, also said patience is necessary during the loan modification process. The housing market in Tri-Cities is a bit different than in many areas of the country, as home values have held fairly steady, he said.

The median and average sales prices were down about 1 percent during the first half of the year compared with the same time period in 2008, according to information from the Tri-City Association of Realtors.

A new report from First American CoreLogic, a national real estate data and analysis company, shows 9,454 mortgage properties — or more than 21 percent — in the Tri-Cities are in negative equity, meaning the borrower owes more than the home is worth.

That’s lower than the national rate of more than 32 percent, according to the company.

Arboretum doesn’t perform modifications, Manthei said, but sends clients to lenders for help.

Anyone seeking modification must be able to prove they can afford it, Manthei said. “People aren’t financially prepared for emergencies,” he said, adding that clients of his working through the modification process, all have steady employment.

“The tightening of guidelines is forcing people to stay in more affordable housing,” he said. “Going forward, I think that’s going to help.”

Source: Tri-City Herald

Awarding subcontract also helps Washington Closure meet minority hiring goals.

Jonetta Everano’s gamble to start her own company has paid off with a subcontract worth up to $4.2 million with Washington Closure Hanford. Now’s she’s busy leasing rigs and hiring union drivers to start hauling Hanford nuclear reservation waste in July.

Everson, who grew up in White Swan on the Yakima nation, has been taking well-calculated risks for years.

The most recent was to start Phoenix Enterprises NW, based in Richland, to see if she could win subcontracts for construction work. The timing seemed right as the federal government prepared to spend $1.96 billion in economic stimulus money at Hanford.

It’s the first subcontract she’s bid on, but she’s working to get other Hanford work and will look at opportunities for commercial work when that industry improves.

The Washington Closure subcontract was reserved for small businesses, and Phoenix submitted the lowest bid among qualified bidders on the project, according to Washington Closure, Her company qualifies not only as a small business, but as woman- and minority-owned.

Although that was not given weight in the bidding award, it will help Washington Closure meets its goals in those subcontracting categories. Last year Washington Closure awarded more than 90 percent of its subcontracts to small businesses for work to clean up the Hanford nuclear reservation along the Columbia River.

The Phoenix subcontract, which falls under Hanford’s annual budget, covers transportation, using heavy dump truck and dump trailer combinations – or truck and pups – to transport nonradioactive soils, debris, concrete and steel from cleanup sites near the Columbia river. Phoenix will take them to the landfill in central Hanford.

A new local network has a “can-do” attitude toward helping Tri-Citians reduce their energy use, recycle and develop partnerships that promote sustainability.

“We want to be able to be the hub for local, regional issues and education so people don’t have to wander around to find what they want,” said Ginger Wireman, president of the Confluence Community Action Network, or CCAN.

Wireman also is the regional chair of e3, a statewide initiative focused on environment, education and economy as elements of sustainability. It was designed to optimize people’s access to environmental education and resources.

CCAN grew out of the local e3 summit in February 2008.

“We’d like to develop as a starting point for supporting sustainable behavior, both independently and through business and government,” Wireman said.

She defined sustainability as using resources — such as air, water, land, raw material and human capital — in a way that ensures they are “healthy and functional for future generations.”

For businesses, sustainability means staying profitable as well as taking into consideration how business is done, she said.

Cal Spinney, CCAN’s vice president, has a background in resource economics. He and Wireman didn’t know each other until recently, when a quick hello in line at a coffee shop turned into a chat about supporting small businesses and environmental sustainability.

The Tri-Cities area is teeming with intelligent, motivated people working on a variety of sustainability issues, Spinney said.

“The thing that’s missing in my view is the linkage between these intelligent, active engaged people to make them more effective,” he said.

CCAN’s website includes a survey for people to tell the network what they’re already doing — such as turning off lights and conserving water — and areas they’d like to kearn more about, like biking to work, gardening and composting.

The network is in the process of registering as a nonprofit and is working to set up a membership system, Wireman said.

People are encouraged to visit the website at www.ccando.org.

Along with the survey, the site contains more details about the group, as well as links to information about water-wise gardening and landscaping, tips for businesses and more.

As the network helps foster relationships between businesses, schools and individuals, Wireman and Spinney are hoping groups with common goals and interests will be able to increase their presence and effectiveness.

“I think the strength in this group is we tend to be generalists,” Wireman said. “We’re looking more broadly so we can see those opportunities to partner.”

Source: Tri-City Herald

May 21, 2009

News reports that the federal government is backing away from its plan to permit eligible borrowers to monetize the first-time homebuyer tax credit are off the mark, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says.

“The technical details are still being finalized and will soon be published in a mortgage letter and posted on our Website,” Lemar Wooley, a HUD spokesperson, told REALTOR Magazine Wednesday afternoon.

Under the guidance that’s under development, state agencies and other HUD-approved entities would be able to provide short-term bridge loans that households could use to help with their downpayment. The loans would be repaid with the proceeds from the households’ federal tax credit.

The loans were announced on the opening day of NAR’s 2009 Midyear Legislative Meetings in Washington, D.C., last week. In this announcement, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said guidance would be issued shortly.

When the guidance is released, it is expected to cover eligible lenders and set parameters for loan terms and repayment.

Source: REALTOR Magazine Online

The Tri-Cities is a metropolitan area in the southeastern part of the US state of Washington, consisting of Benton and Franklin counties. Three neighboring cities are the principal cities for the metropolitan area: Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland. The cities are located at the confluence of the Yakima, Snake, and Columbia rivers in the semi-arid region of the Southeastern Washington. A fourth neighboring city, West Richland, is generally included as part of the Tri-City area and region.

The population of the metropolitan area was 228,992 at the 2007 Census estimates. If the Tri-Cities were a single city, it would be the fourth largest city in the state of Washington, behind Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma.

The Tri-Cities Airport located in Pasco provides the region with commercial and private air service. Pasco is the seat of Franklin County, while the other cities are located in Benton County.

History: 

Pasco was the first of the Tri-Cities to be incorporated, in 1891. Kennewick was incorporated in 1904, and Richland followed in 1910. West Richland was founded by dissatisfied residents of Richland, who wished to be home owners rather than renters of government-owned houses, after the arrival of Hanford. Despite attempts by Richland to annex the community, they remained separate and eventually became incorporated in 1955.  Pasco was the largest city in the Tri-Cities until the founding of Hanford, mostly due to its railroad station. It also had the most land for easy irrigation and farming. Farming was the basis of virtually every sector of the economy in the early years.

Climate and geography:

The Tri-Cities are in a semi-arid climate, receiving an average of 7 to 8 inches of precipitation every year. Winds periodically exceed 30 mph when Chinook wind conditions exist. There are 300 days of sunshine every year and average temperatures range from as low as 10 degrees F in the winter to as high as 110 degrees F in the summer, and even reached 115 degrees F in July 2006. The region receives occasional snow most years. Thanks to the aforementioned rivers, a large amount of cheap irrigation is available.

Education:

• Current higher education opportunities in the Tri-Cities include: Washington State University, a four-year branch campus of Washington State University located in Richland.
• Columbia Basin College, a mid-sized four-year institution (6000 students). The main campus is located in Pasco while a branch campus and a large nursing school are located in Richland.
• Tri-Tech Skills Center, a smaller vocational school run by the Kennewick School District and located in Kennewick.