Alabama HFA Testimonial Transcript
Robert Strickland, Executive Director
The housing finance authority has a mission to get people into homes. We're charged with taking a first time homebuyer and getting them an affordable loan so that they can own a home. Housing finance authorities bring dollars in from Wall Street to Main Street. We use our ability to issue tax-exempt bonds to be able to get the rate down as low as possible for the homebuyer. One of the biggest challenges is knowing that they can buy a home. You know you go through school, you go through college, you never get exposed to what is probably your largest single investment and that is a home. You just don’t know how to go about it. So education – whether it's homeownership counseling or homeownership seminars and classes, that is critical so that an individual, family knows that they can get into a home.
The ability for a homebuyer to deduct the amount paid to the mortgage insurance company for those premiums, to be able to deduct that on their taxes is a great thing. It just is one more thing to help somebody get into a home.
We deal with generally first time homebuyers and low and moderate-income homebuyers. So combination loans should be used with caution and to a sophisticated borrower. The products that we offer need to be secure, they need to be something that they can plan for in the future, and that they can stay in their home. It doesn’t do us any good to get somebody into a house for them to lose it in year two and three.
Housing finance authorities are faced with imposing a recapture tax on a sale of a home. This potential tax on a borrower is being eliminated by Genworth's Recapture Tax Protection. This is being offered as a part of the mortgage insurance so that the homebuyer does not have to worry about making too much money or their house appreciating too much within a particular period of time.
The HomeOpeners® product allows the borrower to have the comfort going into buying their first home knowing that if their job is lost through no fault of their own, they’re protected. They can stay in their home and they can work through these difficult times and remain homeowners. Genworth's HomeOpeners product has been introduced here in Alabama and its really taken hold with our lenders, they like it, they feel good about it. And if they do then they can offer it to the homebuyers. So working with Genworth on this product and being able to offer it through our network of lenders has been a great thing for the homebuyer.
