Silvergate ventures south of the border

NAHREP supports new GSE goals for mortgages to underserved homebuyersMortgagePress.comNAHREP, The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, HUD, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) applauded the increased goals announced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requiring 400,000 more mortgage fundings by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to low- and moderate-income borrowers in underserved areas during the next four years. The new goals are intended to increase the percentage of business devoted to underserved homebuyers by the government-sponsored companies. With the Hispanic homeownership rate still a full 25 percentage points below the non-Hispanic White rate, NAHREP is focused on ensuring that Hispanic families are getting equal access and that the GSEs are giving appropriate emphasis to the nation's largest minority population. Four hundred thousand more new mortgages to low- and moderate-income families is a great start and we applaud HUD for setting new stretch targets, said NAHREP Chair and Cofounder Gary Acosta. However by not including specific incentives for minority loans, we feel that HUD is missing a tremendous opportunity to advance President Bush's goal of increasing minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by the end of the decade. For more information, visit www.nahrep.org.