Countrywide Pledges $600B for Affordable Housing

Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Calabasas, Calif., has announced that it will extend its $100 Billion Challenge and expand it to a $600 billion commitment to increase homeownership among low-income and minority homebuyers by 2010.In a speech to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and the National Housing Endowment, Countrywide chairman Angelo Mozilo noted that the company met its $100 billion goal three years early and is "committing to an even greater goal." To reach the new target, the company says it will further expand its House America branches to the inner cities of all the nation's largest metropolitan areas; seek out loan programs that offer greater flexibility in loan qualifying and help borrowers build equity faster; and increase the number of employees who are experienced in generating emerging-markets business. Mr. Mozilo, who delivered the John T. Dunlop Lecture sponsored by the Joint Center and the endowment, urged mortgage professionals and housing experts to address the obstacles that produce an "intolerably wide" gap in homeownership between minority and lower-income families and the rest of the population. He recommended the elimination of mortgage downpayment requirements, educational efforts to make the mortgage process easier to understand, and the reduction and streamlining of loan application documentation. Countrywide can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.