Owning a home still a viable option for people of color

29th August 2011   ·   0 Comments

Minority real estate personal loans ruston la professionals, financial services executives, analysts, and others departed the 64th Annual Convention in New Orleans hosted by the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) determined to transform the current housing landscape by keeping sustainable and affordable homeownership within reach of the nation’s communities of color. The 650-plus attendees buckled down throughout the four-day working national meeting taking in trend reports which projected a flat housing market, continued tight mortgage lending, a probable upswing in foreclosures, and general economic uncertainty.

In response and undaunted by the less than hopeful near-term projections, NAREB unveiled the Homeownership Assurance Pro­gram (HAP), a ground-breaking partnership that combines all of the sectors necessary to address neighborhood blight. When implemented in the coming months, HAP’s innovative approach targets what seems to be the intractable affordable housing crisis by assisting financially-strapped homeowners remain in their homes serving as community stabilizers.

“NAREB’s the easy loan tm official website $800 million Wall Street/Main Street strategy represents the best thinking on how to restore homeownership as an American dream and work to restore blighted communities. The investment community expressed its confidence. NAREB and our partners are ready and able to begin making our communities desirable places to live. HAP, we believe, is showing a way out of the housing quagmire,” said Julius Cartwright, NAREB’s newly elected president.

NAREB convention-goers balanced an information-packed agenda with time to elect and congratulate new association leadership. Cleveland-based realtist Julius Cartwright was sworn in as president by Congressman James Clyburn during the Convention’s final official event. As a longtime and active NAREB member, Cartwright pledged to galvanize the predominantly African-American membership located in 88 chapters nationwide, and work to change the homeownership paradigm.

“What we begin here in New Orleans strengthens our communities and its people. Hope coupled with 100 day loans interest rate action makes the change and the difference for African Americans,” Cartwright added.

Outgoing [resident Vincent Wimbish of Fort Worth, TX stated in his final remarks to the membership and guests gathered at the culminating convention event, “Our members and affiliates are going to be the [housing] industry’s trendsetters… we are ready…and we are able for this new day.”

During his two-year leadership, Wimbish formalized NAREB’s policy strategy by publishing an issues paper entitled, “Affordable and Sustainable Homeownership for African Americans and Other Minorities: 2010 and Beyond” and pushed meaningful dialogue with Obama Administration officials which included HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, speaking at the 2010 NAREB conference.

“I leave my presidency in qualified, committed, and directed hands. Julius Cartwright has the vision and the dedication to make our communities whole. Wall Street knows it…our members know it…our partners know it…and now, our where to go for a loan with bad credit communities will reap the benefits of our historic and forward-thinking partnerships, and a bright leader shepherding NAREB’s direction,” Wimbish added.

Over the course of the annual four-day national meeting, NAREB brought together high-level HUD officials including Southwest Regional Director C. Donald Babers and Southeast Regional Director Edward Jennings, Jr. to discuss the Department’s current affordable homeownership and mortgage-lending policies along with gaining more insight on HUD’s plans for its inventory of foreclosed properties. In speaking on housing trends, nationally-known real estate industry analyst, Rick Sharga from Realty Trac, Inc. told the crowd that he expects that home prices as well as the housing market in general will remain flat for the next couple of years.

Maurice Jourdain-Earl of the Arlington, VA-based Compliance­Tech, a featured presenter at the Convention’s opening general session, provided a riveting historical perspective on the African-American housing crisis. He described many fast cash fondren of the historical laws, policies and practices that gave White America a leg up in building wealth and is the basis of the Black wealth and homeownership gap in America. He provided an overview of the impact of the Homestead Act, the Homeowners Loan Corporation and FHA appraisal practices redlining Black communities, GI benefits for home loans and a college education when the military was segregated, restrictive covenants and disproportionate levels of subprime and predatory lending in the Black community which has led to a disproportionate level of mortgage defaulters and foreclosures. Mr. Jourdain-Earl proceeded to provide a six-year trend analysis (2004-2009) of mortgage lending to Blacks by loan type, purpose, income and geography.

Jourdain-Earl then utilized audience response system (ARS) technology to validate mortgage lending data. Of note, audience members responded that overwhelmingly, single women are the largest home-buying demographic group; that the three greatest barriers need a loan for bad credit tenant to mortgage approval are credit scoring, debt-to-income ratio (DTI), and insufficient cash, Not surprisingly, audience responders also indicated that fewer than 25 percent (25%) of their real estate clients were first-time homebuyers. He closed his presentation by describing current threats to the future of Black homeownership: A disproportionate level of mortgage defaults and foreclosures and the Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) proposal which negatively impacts the prospects of African-American homeownership.

Running parallel to the convention was NAREB’s Youth Academy Conference, held in partnership with First American Financial Corporation (NYSE: FAF) and supported by Operation HOPE, the leading nonprofit social investment banking and financial literacy empowerment organization.For three days, 35 youth between the ages of 16 and 21 learned leadership skills, banking basics, the power of credit, investing, and in general how to make sound and practical financial choices. On the final day, students gave back to the New Orleans community by bad credit loans allentown pa contributing their physical skills and time at a Habitat for Humanity home-building site.

NAREB’s new president Cartwright also announced at the association’s forum, “The State of Housing in Black America,” that the problems of African Americans and homeownership were front-burner policy issues.

Cartwright stated, “There are a lot of things that have occurred in the Black community relating to the housing crisis that many people simply are not aware of…..our job will be to tell the real story about the true impact the mortgage crisis has had on our communities, as well as our Realtist,” he said.

The National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) was formed in 1947 out of a need to secure the right to equal housing opportunities, regardless of race, creed, or color.

This article originally published in the August 29, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.