Margert in the News
More than
One in Five Homeowners Underwater: Zillow
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home values in the United States extended their fall in
the first quarter, with more than one in five homeowners now owing more on their
mortgages than their homes are worth, real estate website Zillow.com said on
Wednesday.
U.S. home values posted a year-over-year decline of 14.2 percent to a Zillow
Home Value Index of $182,378, resulting in a total 21.8 percent drop since the
market peaked in 2006, according to Zillow's first-quarter Real Estate Market
Reports, which encompass 161 metropolitan areas and cover the value changes in
all homes, not just homes that have recently sold.
U.S. homes lost $704 billion in value during the first quarter and have
depreciated $3.8 trillion in the past 12 months, according to analysis of the
reports.
Declining home values left 21.9 percent of all American homeowners with negative
equity by the end of the first quarter, Zillow said.
By comparison, 17.6 percent of all homeowners owed more on their mortgage than
their property was worth in the fourth quarter of 2008, and 14.3 percent were
underwater in the third quarter of last year, the reports showed.
Nine consecutive quarters of declines have left eight regions -- including the
Modesto, California, Stockton, California, and Fort Myers, Florida regions --
with median value declines of more than 50 percent since those markets peaked.
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Pauline
Morgan Receives US DOE Lifetime Achievement Award
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Pauline Morgan, the New York City DHCR Regional Weatherization Field
Supervisor, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award at the US Department
of Energy's (DOE) Northeast Regional Weatherization Conference. The event, which
was coordinated by the New York State Weatherization Directors Association
(NYSWDA), was held in May in Lake Placid.
The award is given each year to an individual who best exemplifies:
Creativity in serving low-income communities; Intelligence in program design;
and Unrelenting focus on meeting the challenges facing America's low-income
families.
"I was actually very surprised, very humbled. This award means a great deal
because it comes from the members and is a testament to my staff and to our
support within the sub-grantee community," Pauline said.
The Board of Directors and staff of Margert Community
Corporation congratulate Pauline on this much deserved honor!
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Foreclose Filings in New
York City Drop, but Risk Still Looms
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BY Phyllis Furman
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER
Thursday, June 11th 2009, 4:00 AM
Fewer New Yorkers are at risk of losing their homes, but the city's
foreclosure woes are far from over.
The number of New York homeowners who received foreclosure notices declined 6%
last month to 1,885 compared with April, according to stats released Wednesday
by foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac. The decline from May 2008 was 9.3%.
The decline in foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and
bank repossessions - are a positive for the city, RealtyTrac spokesman Daren
Blomquist said, although he cautioned that "the housing market is still very
fragile."
"Any number of factors, including higher unemployment, could trigger an
increase," Blomquist said.
New Yorkers at risk of losing their homes can seek help by calling 311.
Michael Hickey, executive director of the Center for New York City
Neighborhoods, a nonprofit that coordinates foreclosure prevention efforts, said
the latest stats do not reflect the rising tide of New Yorkers seeking aid
before they receive a foreclosure notice.
"We're seeing more people in distress and less capacity within the banking
sector to address that," Hickey said.
Queens continued to be hit hardest by foreclosure notices, with 713 filings,
though the rate of foreclosures in the borough was down nearly 13% from April
and down nearly 16% from May 2008.
Citywide, one out of every 1,764 homeowners received some form of foreclosure
filing, while the rate is one in every 398 homes nationwide.
Margert Community Corporation is a housing counseling
partner agency of the Center for NYC Neighborhoods.
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NYS DHCR Celebrates National Homeownership Month
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June is National Homeownership Month and the state Division of Housing and
Community Renewal (DHCR) and our not-for-profit housing agency partners are
offering down-payment assistance programs for first-time home buyers. These
programs, together with the new $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home
buyers, can make homeownership possible for many more working families in New
York. DHCR recently expanded its highly successful "Assets for Independence"
(AFI) Program to include not only Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher clients but
all income-eligible New Yorkers. This increased accessibility will provide up to
400 low-income families with closing cost assistance and help them develop
budgeting skills and regular savings habits.
Previously, the AFI program provided matched-savings for down-payment assistance
grants for statewide Section 8 housing choice voucher holders. DHCR is a
national leader in administering this program, helping more than 250 voucher
holders in cities and counties across the state purchase their very own home.
To capitalize on this success, DHCR applied to the US Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) to expand the program. The request was quickly approved and
DHCR began recruiting additional partner agencies to provide outreach and
applications to consumers from all areas of the state.
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