NYMC's 2017 annual report is available to read online. Thank you to our community groups, member lenders, and partners.

However much you choose to save, it's key to start saving as soon as you can. You will get into the habit and your money will have more time to grow.

Consider saving a portion of your tax refund. Ask a loan counselor about Lending Circles and Homebuyer Savings Programs.

-New York Mortgage Coalition
Tip of the Month Sponsored by HSBC Bank USA., N.A.

NYMC member Housing Action Council has fair and affordable single family homes and condominiums available in Bedford, Buchanan, Cortlandt, Harrison, Lewisboro, Mount Pleasant, North Castle, Pelham Manor, Pound Ridge, Somers, and Yorktown in Westchester County, New York. Prices range from $125,000 to $300,000. Applications are due April 24, 2017.

The full list of properties includes:
5 Liberty Way, Somers, NY - 3 Family Home
20 Tighe Road, Somers, NY - Single Family Home
142 Stonemeadow Dr, Lewisboro, NY - Condominum
34 Bittersweet Lane, Lewisboro, NY - Condominium
124 Lake Kitchawan Dr, Lewisboro, NY - Single Family Home
70 West St, Harrison, NY - Condominium
240 Halstead Ave, Harrison, NY - Condominium
163 Halstead Ave, Harrison, NY - Condominium
280 Bleakley St, Buchanan, NY - Single Family Home
734 Warren Ave, Mount Pleasant, NY - Single Family Home
30 Grove Road, North Castle, NY - Single Family Home
3 Maryland Ave, North Castle, NY - Single Family Home
41 Church St, Bedford, NY - Single Family Home
7 Ridge Street, Bedford, NY - Single Family Home
108 Nottingham, Bedford Hills, NY - Condominium
256 Westchester Ave, Pound Ridge, NY - Single Family Home
914 Wynnewood Road, Pelham Manor, NY - Fairways Condominium Complex
114 Quail Court, Yorktown, NY - One Bedroom
3408 Deerhaunt Street, Yorktown, NY - Five Bedrooms
3271 Lincoln Drive, Yorktown, NY - Three Bedrooms
3318 Old Yorktown Road, Yorktown, NY - Three Bedrooms
3758 Old Jefferson Valley Road, Yorktown, NY - Three Bedrooms
15 Granite Springs Road, Yorktown, NY - Four Bedrooms
3771 Valleyview Street, Yorktown, NY - Four Bedrooms
1633 Strawberry Road, Yorktown, NY - Four Bedrooms
3841 Valleyview Street, Yorktown, NY - Four Bedrooms

Applications for all properties and more information are available at http://www.housingactioncouncil.org/. For more information, contact hac@affordablehomes.org or 914-332-4144.

Debt is part of our life and can be necessary, whether it is to pay for education, getting a home, buying a car, or expand our business. However, debt can easily get us into trouble if we don’t plan and take control over it.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded on June 21, 2016 more than $42 million in housing counseling grants to hundreds of national, regional and local organizations to help families and individuals with their housing needs and to prevent future foreclosures. New York Mortgage Coalition was awarded $387,475 to be distributed to its network of eleven housing counseling agencies. This funding will help counselors assist a over 11,000 households in achieving their housing goals.

In your search for a home, you’ve probably perused websites like Zillow and Trulia, and you may have also used their mobile app counterparts. But there’s a wealth of helpful homebuying apps out there that you may not be familiar with. Here are a few that can aid you in the process, from start to finish.

This June, NYMC celebrates National Homeownership Month. Our members will be holding first time homebuyer seminars and workshops to help you get started on the path towards achieving the goal of homeownership. NYMC is also participating in eHome America's Millennial homebuyers campaign to spread the word about online homebuyer education through social media. Sign up today for the new and improved course at http://ehomeamerica.org/nymc.

National Mortgage News recognized New York Mortgage Coalition Executive Director Rebecca Senn as a People Mover of the Week for April 29, 2016.
The full article can be read at http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/news/people/people-movers-of-the-week-april-29-1076846-1.html.

The weather is finally heating up a bit! Enjoy it while it lasts, because it won’t be long before your central air breaks down on a 90 degree day and your landlord is nowhere to be found. Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your own living space? Homeownership is more affordable than you might think. Check out some of these events held by NYMC members and find out if homeownership is right for you. You could beat the heat this summer in your own cool house!

Almost 50 years ago, the Fair Housing Act was passed as part of the monumental Civil Rights Act of 1968. The main goal of the act has been to protect both buyers and renters from seller or landlord discrimination in the housing market. People of all races, creeds, and national origins are protected under the Fair Housing Act, as well as all genders, people with disabilities, and families with children according to expanded legislation. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, better known as HUD, is dedicated to guaranteeing fair housing opportunities for all, a goal which is celebrated every April with Fair Housing Month!

Spring is finally here! It’s the perfect time for new beginnings. Homeownership is more affordable than you might think. Check out some of these events held by NYMC members and find out if spring is the right time for you to finally become a homeowner.

It might not feel like it quite yet, but spring is almost here! Of course that means blossoming flowers and outdoors fun are all right around the corner … but did you know spring is also the busiest time of year in the real estate market? More houses are sold and bought in the spring than any other season. Check out some of these events held by NYMC members and find out if spring is the right time for you to finally become a homeowner.

The holiday season may have been unusually tropical, but the weather outside is finally frightful… wouldn’t it be nice to go home to your very own place and crank up the thermostat? Check out some of these events held by NYMC members and find out if homeownership is right for you. (Hint: It probably is.)

Is your new year’s resolution to finally be done with renting and become a homeowner? Start off 2016 on the right foot with these events held by members of the New York Mortgage Coalition.

The New York Mortgage Coalition is featured in the September 2015 issue of The Bridge, the newsletter of the HUD Office of Housing Counseling. The September issue highlights coalitions of housing counseling agencies that work together to serve a common purpose. NYMC’s members work together to unify the field of affordable homeownership by helping lenders, funders, non-profits, realtors, and policy makers work collaboratively to maximize equitable homeownership opportunities for all the underserved.

The New York Mortgage Coalition is featured in the Fall 2015 issue of Shelterforce Magazine, the quarterly publication of the National Housing Institute. “Staying Afloat By Branching Out” by Loren Berlin features the innovative ways that several housing counseling agencies face cuts in state and federal funding for foreclosure prevention. NYMC’s partnership with eHome America to provide its member agencies with a new revenue stream through online homeownership education is highlighted as one such innovation.

Berlin writes:

Other agencies are diversifying revenue streams by leveraging technology, such as the New York Mortgage Coalition (NYMC), a network of 11 counseling agencies working throughout greater New York. According to NYMC executive director Ken Inadomi, funding levels for mortgage default counseling in the state of New York have remained consistent so far thanks to settlements with many of the country’s largest banks negotiated by the state’s attorney general. Nonetheless, Inadomi anticipates the eventual end of these monies, and is using technology to prepare for that inevitability.

This year NYMC brokered a deal to provide member agencies discounted subscriptions to eHomeAmerica, an online housing counseling platform that is currently limited to pre-purchase services, but intends to add post-purchase counseling soon. Potential homebuyers pay $99 for the pre-purchase counseling, with a portion of the fees shared between NYMC’s agencies and eHomeAmerica. In the near term, the platform enables NYMC members to diversify their services by adding pre-purchase counseling on top of existing default counseling services.

In doing so, agencies are also able to increase revenues, says Inadomi. “It’s a fee-for-service model that can be built on. The typical first-time homebuyers today were born in 1983, representing the leading edge of the millennial generation. They are technology-driven and don’t want to come for an in-person workshop, don’t want to pay for child care, parking. They want to do it at home, and they will pay $99 for that convenience.”

According to Inadomi, the platform also presents an opportunity to reduce administrative costs. The agencies don’t have to host as many in-person workshops, which Inadomi estimates can cost upwards of $500 per session including staff overtime, meeting space, maintenance, and refreshments. “Let’s say you do that 20 times a year, that’s $10,000. . . . Plus, walk-in and face-to-face services are largely driven by staff capacity. Online counseling makes you less dependent on staff headcount to meet demand.”

Down the road, once the platform’s post-purchase services are up and running, Inadomi believes that online counseling programs such as eHome will serve as a buffer against future fluctuations in funding for default counseling services. “There will be an ongoing counseling platform that will always be available, regardless of the increases or decreases in funding, providing a consistent revenue stream,” he says, asserting that he believes there will also always be a role for face-to-face counseling.

The New York Mortgage Coalition received the Neighborhood Champion Award at the Neighbors Helping Neighbors and Fifth Avenue Committee Benefit Bash on November 18, 2014 at Union Hall in Brooklyn. Executive director Ken Inadomi accepted the award on behalf of New York Mortgage Coalition.

The evening’s program was opened by Michelle de la Uz, executive director, Fifth Avenue Committee and Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Dina Levy, special assistant to New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, gave special remarks. Reverend Kevin Sweeney of St Michael’s Roman Catholic Church, was also honored with the Community Leadership Award.

Visit the Fifth Avenue Committee Facebook page for more photos of the night: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152899616776450.1073741830.155103046449&type=1

We have a new Events Calendar on our website featuring all of our community groups homeownership events, seminars, workshops, credit classes, and more!

Ken Inadomi, Executive Director of the New York Mortgage Coalition, wrote an article for The Niche Report, Housing Market Requires Creative Approaches to Mitigate Future Risks.

These [Qualifed Residential Mortgage] policy changes are untested and could disrupt the recovery in the housing market… Rather than make wholesale policy changes, the public and private sectors should come together to find creative ways to mitigate mortgage risks while promoting sustainable growth. One example they could draw from is a homebuyer education program that has already demonstrated success in New York.