Buy A Home With No Money Down - Texas Bond 77 Program Provides Down Payment Assistance.

By Troy Corman, t2realestate.com

For a limited time, first-time home buyers can have their down payment payed by the state of Texas. Those that also have the seller pay his or her closing costs can in essence, buy a home for no money down.

With FHA financing, a seller can pay up to 6% of a buyer's closing cost. On a conventional Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac backed loan, the seller can only contribute 3% of a buyer's closing cost.

Act quickly, however as the FHA has announced IT WILL REDUCE SELLER PAID CLOSING COSTS FROM 6% TO 3% THIS SUMMER.

That means on a $200K house, instead of a seller paying up to $12k in closing costs, it will be cut in half, to $6k in closing costs concessions.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) introduced a new bond program to assist buyers with their down payment on a home purchase. The "Bond 77" provides Texas home buyers $500 million in funds. $50 million per month will be released on a first-come-first-served basis.

This program is only available for owner occupied single-family homes. All areas are available for the program but "targeted areas" where median incomes are lower, have greater incentives for both first-time and repeat home buyers.

A "first-time home buyer" is defined as someone who has not owned a home in the past three years.

Income Limits:
- Targeted areas: 1-2 persons = $87,960 / 3+ persons = $102,620
- Non-targeted area: 1-2 persons = $73,300 / 3+ persons = $84,295

Home Purchase Price Limits:
- Targeted areas: $316,177
- Non-targeted areas: $258,690 (ONLY 1ST-TIME HOME BUYERS ARE ELIGIBLE)

Program is for SINGLE FAMILY HOMES only.

Down Payment assistance is in the form of a "silent" 2nd lien which means there is no interest, no payments, but when you sell the home you must pay the amount back. If you live in the home for 30 years, the loan "balloons" at that time, which means the entire amount is due.

Also, if you refinance the home, or convert it to a rental you must pay back the down payment assistance amount at that time.

A home buyer education course is required for home buyers who wish to qualify for the program. Many are online and take about an hour to complete.

For further details, contact Troy Corman at 214.690.9682.

Drilling Moratorium Could Destroy Houston Jobs And Real Estate.

Posted by Troy Corman, www.t2realestate.com
Copyright © 2010, KIAH-TV

According to anlaysts, the deep water oil drilling moratorium could costs thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars per day.

Brian Uhlmer, director of research said, "If you talk about all the deep water drilling being done, Exxon International, there's no reason for them to stay in Houston,. It would lead to a trend down in Houston real estate, housing values, which affects the rest of the city, so the economic impact is on the order of billions [of dollars]."

 

Dallas In Top 10 List Of Recession-proof Cities.

CNNmoney.com article summarized by Troy Corman, www.t2realestate.com

 MetroMonitor, a quarterly report released by Brookings Institute has released it's list of the top 10 stable cities most likely to weather the recession. The author of the report, Howard Weil, says "most of these cities have some general characteristics in common. They didn't experience huge home price bubbles followed by a crash and their economies aren't rooted in the auto industry."

Let's hope they're correct.

The top 10 cities are:

1. Albany, N.Y.
2. Augusta, Ga.
3. Austin, Tx.
4. Baton Rouge, La.
5. Buffalo, N.Y.
6. Columbia, S.C.
7. Dallas, Tx.
8. Des Moines, Iowa
9. El Paso, Tx.
10. Honolulu

Source: CNNMoney.com, Hibah Yousuf