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October 10, 2001
Property Flipping Remediation Yields Investment-grade Security
by Mark Thomsen
Refinancing plan for victims of property flipping in Minneapolis includes mortgage-backed
securities for institutional investors (part two of a two-part article).
SocialFunds.com --
A three-year property flipping scheme in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota (see yesterday's article)
affected a total of over 500 families. While some were able to regain their credit, many lost
their homes. However, about 50 families, despite all odds, had managed to hold on to their houses.
In a few cases they have staved off foreclosure by making partial payments.
 The Family Housing Fund (FHF), a nonprofit that promotes affordable
housing in Minneapolis and St. Paul, realized that these 50 families might have a chance of keeping
their homes if they received the right help. This help would have to go beyond the scope of the
Property Flipping Task Force, a multi-organization initiative that FHF launched to help victims of
the scam.
In the summer of 2000, members of FHF met with the Board of Pensions of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to discuss how new mortgages might be financed. At the
meeting, the Board of Pensions said it was looking for investments that had ERISA-compliant
features, which ruled out options such as purchasing below-market mortgages. William Cunningham,
Manager of Social Purpose Investing at the Board, suggested creating a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac
product.
Fannie Mae
(ticker: FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE)
are government-backed corporations that purchase mortgage loans in the secondary mortgage market.
Mr. Cunningham was fresh from testifying the month before on Capitol Hill regarding Fannie Mae's
and Freddie Mac's lack of involvement in addressing special housing-related issues such as
predatory lending.
FHF and other Property Flipping Task Force participants then went to
work, starting a dialogue with Fannie Mae through its partnership office in the Twin Cities. In
the spring of 2001, FHF convened a larger group to address the problems of these fifty families.
In addition to social services organizations, the group included the Board of Pensions and local
mortgage lenders.
The group proposed counteracting the families' bad credit and lack of
financial sophistication by raising charitable dollars to fund extensive homeowner counseling. New
mortgages would be made to these 50 homeowners contingent upon their promise to attend homeowner
counseling sessions.
Although the plan involved a significant deviation from its typical
loan guidelines, Fannie Mae agreed to the arrangement. It would purchase and securitize the loans
made by primary lenders, even though some of the homeowners did not meet its credit history
underwriting standards. Thus was born the Home to Stay program. In return for signing an
agreement to participate in the counseling sessions, the families would get a 30-year fixed
mortgage.
The Community Reinvestment
Fund (CRF), a non-profit that provides capital to community development lenders in low- to
moderate-income communities, is servicing the loans. The Home to Stay program administration is
very strict about attendance to the counseling sessions; families are called the next day if a
session is missed. The counseling, which started in late April, is administered by the Family
Housing Fund and is offered by Lutheran social services.
Of the initial 50 families,
there are now 38 in the program. Eleven of the refinance loans have been closed, and the others
should close this month. The 30-year mortgages are being processed by three primary mortgage
lenders in the Twin Cities. Each will take about one-third of the applications, originate the
loans, and then sell them to Fannie Mae.
Fannie Mae will then take the mortgages, pool
them, and create government-backed securities that the Evangelical Lutheran Church and United
Methodist Church pension funds will purchase as investments.
Since most of the houses are
dilapidated, renovating them is an important part of the Home to Stay program. The 30-year
mortgages are based on an after-renovation appraisal value. The goal is to have the first
mortgages be no more than 80 percent of the after-renovation value; this makes the mortgages more
attractive to Fannie Mae. There are three nonprofits working with the families to coordinate the
repairs.
Money for the renovations comes in the form of a junior mortgage, which is
interest-free and can be paid back when the house is sold. There are two other junior mortgages
with the same payback conditions; one for closing costs and the other for those families that have
insufficient income. Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency are
among the sources of funds for these junior mortgages.
Besides teaching the basics of home
ownership, Home to Stay has helped the families get through the mortgage application process, as
well as obtain estimates on the necessary renovations. According to FHF, the hot housing market in
the Twin Cities made it a challenge to get reasonable and timely bids on the renovation work.
Mr. Cunningham is pleased that the Board contributed to realizing a high-impact community
investment. "We are glad to see an investment we outlined come to life," he said. "The Family
Housing Fund and CRF carefully listened to what we suggested, and did the hard work required to
make it happen."
He is also excited about what Home to Stay means for future victims of
such scams. "This is a complicated process, since it is the first time that any type of
investment-grade predatory loan remediation has been done," he explained. "We hope to work with other church pension
funds to replicate this program around the country."
Community development and social
services organizations that would like to get more information about the Home to Stay program can
contact the Family Housing Fund.
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SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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