A ugust 10, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
P \c.t: A 4
Consumers Want One-Stop Shopping
Consumers want more informa­
tion. faster and they want to get it
with ease. One-stop shopping in the
home bus ing and selling process tits
this scenario and the National Asso­
ciation of Realtors wants to do all it
can to promote this concept, says
NAR President Robert H. Elrod.
"A real estate broker’s ability to
provide a wide variety o f services,
including finding a buyer for the
seller and matching the buyer with a
mortgage to complete the sale, rep­
resents the future for the real estate
industry, and the future is now,”
Elrod say s. “This type of one-stop
shopping is part of ail evolution in
home buy ing. triggered by sophisti­
cated consumers who want the pro­
cess to be quicker and more stream­
lined.”
One-stop shopping, available
through electronic technology, has
long been applied in other indus­
tries, such as the travel industry.
However, in home sales, this con­
cept is made possible through com­
puterized loan origination (CLO)
systems. These systems enable the
real estate broker to offer informa­
tion on financing options and move
the m ortgage loan application
through its initial processing. CLO
sy stems prov ide instant affordability
analy sis, loan comparison and loan
tracking services. They directly ben­
efit buyers by providing an option to
wrap several steps into one.
Revisions to the federal rule on
one-stop shopping in home buying
were released late last month by the
U.S. Department o f Housing and
Urban Development. The revisions
to the Real Estate Settlement Proce­
dures Act (RESPA) could impact
how real estate services are bundled
and made available to buyers and
sellers.
“Our hope is that HUD will not
change RESPA in a way that would
limit consumer options in the real
estate services and settlement pro­
cess," Elrod said. "While there have
been some critics who say the con­
sumer is not well-served by getting
all or most of his real estate settle­
ment and financing needs served in
one place -- namely , the real estate
broker’s office -- we believe these
criticisms are short-sighted and self-
serving.”
A real estate professional is of­
ten the home buyer’s first point of
contact. As a result, buyers have
long relied on brokers and associates
to compile a list of mortgage options
that suits theirneeds. They want help
in detenuining monthly payments
and how much they can afford 00
and most o f them don’t want to wait
until they visit a mortgage broker to
get this information, Elrod explained.
“We were very pleased in 1992 when
HUD correctly backed our conten­
tion that CLO systems can benefit
consumers by providing a wide
choice of mortgages, interest rates
and loan terms -- all in the conve­
nience of the real estate broker’s
office.”
The association leadership is
hopeful that HUD will continue to
allow CLO systems so that real es­
tate businesses can continue to com­
Share Your Home,
Heart And Heritage
pete freely in the marketplace. In the
1992 RESPA regulation, HUD rati­
fied the fees for services payment to
real estate brokers using CLO sys­
tems RESPA prohibits payments for
simple lender referral.
The regulation also allows con­
trolled business arrangements, which
preserves the right o f real estate firms
to diversity and to offer consumer
discounts for bundles services. “Op­
ponents of our position have errone­
ously charged that real estate bro­
kers tend to refer buyers only to
lenders who pay the highest fees,
regardless of quality of product or
service, and that consumers are not
well-served. This simply is not true,”
stressed Elrod
"Today’s consumers are short
on time,” he said. “Home buyers
don’t want to run around to a real
east broker to see listings, to a mort­
gage company to get a loan, then to
a title company for title insurance.
Multiple-service, diversified real
estate offices provide an easier, faster
way to sell a home.”
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Share Your Home, Heart And Heritage
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If interested call collect, Roger 801 -969-9270 or Amy at 1-800-888-9040.
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as a exchange visitor program by the United States Information Agency
(US1A).
Architecture Professors Criticize Suburbs
TwoUniversity ofOregon land­
scape architecture professors con­
tend that American suburbs have
often failed to deliver on their prom­
ise to blend city and country living in
a way that captures the best of both
worlds.
"There is often little or no con­
nection between one subdivision and
the next or even between yards,
streets and parks within subdivi­
sions,” says Kenneth Helphand, a
professor in the UO Department of
Landscape Architecture.
"The solution is to develop a
comprehensive system ofopen space
networks linking the private world
FHA Program Good But Can Be Made Better
A recent report states that
m o rtg a g e in te r e s t ra te s are
headed up and housing starts ac­
tiv ity is down, em phasizes the
need to expand and responsibly
im p ro v e the F ederal H ousing
A d m in istratio n ’s single-fam ily
m ortgage insurance program , the
N ational A ssociation o f Realtors
said.
“ FH A ’s m ortgage insurance
is a valuable governm ent pro­
gram that generates its own in­
com e and helps low-, m oderate-
a n d m id d le - in c o m e p e o p le
achieve the dream o f hom e ow n­
ersh ip ,” said NAR President Rob­
ert H Elrod. “C ongress now has
a chance to im prove on a good
thing by m aking FHA easier to
use and available to a greater
num ber o f people." Elrod added.
“ H ousing bills now before the
U.S. H ouse and Senate could
make the FHA program acces­
sible to m ore hom e buyers at a
time when financing costs are
increasing and housing construc­
tion is teete rin g .”
E lro d ’s rem arks came on the
heels o f Federal R eserve C hair­
man Alan G reen sp an ’s w arning
to C ongress that interest rates
may need to m ove higher to en­
sure that inflation rem ains in
check. Also, the governm ent re­
ported that housing starts were
down 9.8 percent in June from
May.
N A R -supported provisions
in the House and Senate housing
bills would raise the m aximum
FHA loan limit in high cost areas
from $141,750 to $172,675 and
w ould increase the FHA base
am ount — the loan lim it in places
not designated as high cost —
from $ 6 7 ,5 0 0 to m ore th an
$100,000.
R aising the FHA base loan
am ount to $100,00 would allow
1,5 m illion more fam ilies to buy
hom es, according to NAR ana­
lysts. In addition, raisin g the
m axim um FHA loan lim it in
high-cost areas so it's indexed to
85 percent o f the Fannie Mae-
Freddie Mac loan lim it would
allow another 250,00 fam ilies to
buy hom es using FH A -insured
m ortgages, the analysts estim ate.
Increasing the FHA limit in
high-cost areas would be esp e­
cially helpful to potential buyers
in New England and C alifornia
cities, w here home prices are far
h ig h er than elsew h ere in the
country. These prices are well
above the U.S. m edian existing-
home p riceo f$ 1 0 6 ,8 0 0 for 1993.
“ People in these high cost areas
sim ply a re n 't able to use the p ro­
gram , re g a rd le ss o f th e ir in ­
com e,” Elrod said.
The real advantage to people
using FHA is that they do n ’t have
to come up with all the up-front
costs in cash, as required in the
co n v en tio n al m arket. Instead,
they can finance the up-front
m ortgage insurance premium and
most o f th eir closing costs. As
part o f the U.S. D epartm ent o f
Housing and Urban Development
(HU D), FHA has insured sin g le­
fam ily hom es for m ore than 21
m illion borrow ers since its cre­
ation in 1934.
of yards to the public realm of streets
and parks,” says Cynthia Girling, an
assistant professor in the UO De­
partment of Landscape Architecture.
Helphand says the design alter­
natives in the book can be adapted to
new or existing developments to
transform them into sustainable, liv­
able communities.
Innovative proposals in the book
include designing residential streets
so that they are geared less to the
automobile and more friendly to pe­
destrians and cyclists, rethinking the
front driveway, and exploring new
opportunities for public parks in
places such as shopping malls.
J.L.S. Lawn Service
office: 503-335-0263
pager: 503-940-7721
Estimates
Buyer Boost In Condos
Sales ofexisting condominiums
and co-operatives rose a healthy 18.2
percent to a seasonally adjusted an­
nual rate of 436,000 units in 1994's
second quarter compared to the same
quarter last year, the National Asso­
ciation of Realtors reported
Sales of existing condos and co­
ops rose by double digits in all re­
gions across the nation between the
second quarter of 1994 and the same
period a year ago. The strongest in­
creases were posted in the Northeast
and South.
Robust sales and unusually high
appreciation rates indicate a market
supported by a strong demand from
retirees and first-time buyers, who
are clearly not discouraged by rising
mortgage interest rates, according to
NAR President Robert H. Elrod.
• W h ile firs t-tim e b u y e rs
have alw ays been a strong factor
in the condo and co-op m arket,
an unusually strong appreciation
o f these types o f properties across
th e b o ard in d ic a te a m ark e t
y '
A, .
'.-J
Dad’s
flo o d e d by re tire e s w ho are
choosing to move out o f their
p re s e n t h o m es and into th e
higher-priced end o f the condo
m arket,” Elrod explained.
According to the Federal Home
Loan Mortgage Corp., the national
average commitment rate for 30-
]
year, conventional, fixed-rate mort­
gages was 8.45 percent for the sec­
ond quarter of 1994, compared to
7.45 percent a year ago.
“The demand in this segment of
the real estate market is very healthy,”
noted NAR Chief Economist John
A. Tuccillo.
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