The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals wants to change government policies so that families seeking to buy a home have a better chance of buying Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA REO properties.
“Something is wrong. It shouldn’t take families six to eight months to buy a home,” Martinez said at the trade group’s annual Washington meeting Monday afternoon.
“Government’s policies have not kept up with current market conditions,” said Armando Falcon, chairman and chief executive of Falcon Capital Advisors.
“It is time to stop the focus on the inventory issue,” he said, in terms of taking excess product off the market. “It is time to focus on owner occupancy,” the former GSE regulator said.
In Nevada, Martinez worked with local politicians and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to get Fannie to extend its “First Look” program from 15 days and 30 days. That gave first-time homeowners more opportunity to sign a contract.
“We have put thousands and thousands of Latino families into homes because of that policy in the state of Nevada.” Martinez said.
Now NAHREP wants Fannie and Freddie to set goals for selling REO to owner occupants. “Specifically, the minimum amount of REO sales that are sold to owner occupants should be the lesser of 65% of the enterprise’s local REO inventory, or the current owner-occupancy ratio in the local market.”
