The Real Estate Wonk: Seller-financed down payment assistance wins a round - Baltimore Sun reporter Jamie Smith Hopkins blogs about the local housing market

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Seller-financed down payment assistance wins a round

Gaithersburg-based AmeriDream Inc. today got the temporary injunction it was asking for against a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ban on a type of down payment assistance for buyers.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman’s ruling will keep the regulation banning seller-financed assistance from going into effect today as planned, according to the court filing. AmeriDream's press release is here.

AmeriDream is one of the nonprofit organizations that offers down payment help to low- and moderate-income buyers getting mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. The nonprofits get their money from the homes’ sellers, which HUD has criticized because a higher-than-average percentage of the borrowers end up in foreclosure.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins on October 31, 2007 4:20 PM | Permalink

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About the blogger

Jamie Smith Hopkins, a Baltimore Sun reporter since 1999, writes about the regional economy. Her reporting on the housing market has won national and local awards. Hopkins is a Columbia native and has lived in Maryland all her life, save for 10 months spent covering schools in Ames, Iowa.
She trained to become a wonk by spending large chunks of time as a geek and an insufferable know-it-all.
• Baltimore Sun articles by Jamie