What happened to Nehemiah and Ameradream programs?
Well the Nehemiah and Ameridream programs were dangerous for all of us. By allowing home buyers to finance a home without a down payment, these two programs did a lot of damage to the real estate market.
Like so many good ideas, these were bad ideas masquerading as a
public service resulting in 17% of all Nehemiah’s homes eventually being foreclosed upon. Compare this to a foreclosure rate of 3% for homebuyers that put down a minimum of 5% and a 5% foreclosure rate for homebuyers that put down a minimum of 3%.
This information was always there but only came to the surface of Housing and Urban Development during the housing market meltdown. Once they figured this problem couldn’t be concealed any longer they eliminated the programs and promptly increased the minimum down on a FAH loan from 3% to 3.5%.
