Housing finance agencies that provide mortgages to first time, poor and moderate-income homebuyers are facing difficulties finding money to loan.

Ohio canceled a $150 million bond sale after the credit market meltdown. West Virginia and Illinois postponed bond sales. Wisconsin suspended its entire program, and California put its program on hold.

Bond programs that do continue to operate are having trouble raising money. New York’s housing finance agency sold $110 million in bonds at a full percentage point higher than it did earlier this year.

Getting housing finance agencies operating again is critical to the housing recovery, says Pat Begg, director of secondary marketing at Huntington Bancshares.

“To get the housing market off the ground you’ve got to get the first-time buyer off the fence and back into the market,” Begg says.

Source: The Associated Press, Andrew Welsh-Huggins (10/30/08)

Bennington VT Real Estate, Buying, First Time Buyers

Reprinted from REALTOR® Magazine Online with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

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