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A new program was implemented on October 1, 2008. Our President has made a reality the legislation that will let HUD’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to continue providing help to homeowners who are having problems paying their mortgages. The Hope for Homeowners program will carry on FHA’s work to help American families who feel they are trapped in mortgages they can’t possibly pay back. Under this new legislation, certain families facing hardship with their mortgage will be eligible to refinance into FHA-insured mortgages they can afford.

Families Could Possibly Be Eligible For This Program

You should not wait if you are currently in a bind. Today you can find out if you qualify for this exciting new program through FHASecure, FHA’s existing refinancing program. They will get your information from these two agencies:

1. You must call a local, HUD-approved housing counseling agency at HUD.gov;
2. You can also call the HOPE NOW Alliance at 1-888-995-HOPE

How Can the US Government Make This Long-Term?

Hope for Homeowners isn’t a hand out. It requires you to prove you have the ability to pay back something long-term. The FHA has had that as a long-standing requirement. FHA only allows families living in that home to be eligible for FHA-insured mortgages. And here are the qualifications for the new loan:

- Their mortgage must have originated on or before January 1, 2008;

- Their mortgage debt-to-income must be at least 31 percent;

- They cannot afford their current loan;

- They did not intentionally miss mortgage payments; and

- They do not own second homes.

Features of FHA-insured loans under the new program include:

- 30-year, fixed rate mortgage;

- Maximum 90 percent loan-to-value ratio;

- No prepayment penalties;

- $550,440 maximum mortgage amount;

- Extinguishment of any subordinate liens; and

- New home appraisals from FHA-approved appraisers.

HUD, Treasury, FDIC and the Federal Reserve will form the Congressionally-mandated Board of Directors and work together to establish additional program standards.

But Your Mortgage Company Can Choose Not to Foreclose

FHA will is asking banks and mortgage companies to come up with an alternative to foreclosing on borrowers. Just like the FHASecure’s recent growth, banks are asked to write-down the outstanding mortgage principal balances to 90 percent of the new value of the property. In many cases, reductions in principle will cost lenders less than the losses associated with foreclosure.

What Happens With This Crazy Financial Market?

This should put the brakes on the foreclosure train, this program will support FHA’s existing effort to stabilize local housing markets. From September 2007 to June 2008, FHA has guaranteed more than $93 billion of mortgage capital.

Where Does the Money Come From?

Well, the FHA will guarantee up to $300 billion in new loans. Families will pay an upfront fee of 3 percent of the original mortgage amount and then an annual premium of 1.5 percent of the outstanding mortgage amount. If there are additional costs, those will be reimbursed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Program Timeline

The program will last from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2011. Since September 2007, FHASecure has helped more than 290,000 families obtain safer, more affordable mortgages. FHASecure is on pace to help 500,000 families by the end of the year.

Basic web ecommerce shopping cart solutions capture email addresses, send receipts and send a thank you to buyers. However, most shopping cart services do much more.Shopping cart programs today help with website hosting, QuickBooks links, pricing, tax calculations and digital product downloads. Basic e-commerce systems commonly offer ready-to-use store templates or wizards that guide you through the setup process and help you get your store up and running. They also come with ready-to-use shopping cart soft that keeps customers purchases as they select them, calculates prices, collects the information about customers and then submits credit card information to your bank. When getting a website quote make sure these items are encluded. Basic computer literacy skills are strongly recommended. However, if your computer skills are weak, you may need extra patience with yourself and your computer.

Your visitors experience is more important than the design itself but design and usability should go hand-in-hand. Please, please, please do not hire someone who is a print designer or skilled illustrator familiar with the Adobe Creative Suite and can do fascinating things with color. Website design for small businesses and Search Engine Optimization , in particular, are tricky subjects; the instructors recognize this fact and are more than happy to clarify any aspect of the workshop that might be confusing to people. An interesting upshot of attending the SCORE workshops is that small business owners are given the opportunity to meet and network with those in their field?professionals with similar interests and knowledge of the local business environment. Website is search engine optimized and has back-end control panel for site editing and creation of new pages and products. Centauria previously designed a corporate identity package for the firm, including logo, business cards and stationary.

Small business web design is not just about having a website for the sake of having a website. It’s an extension of your business.

Early childhood – particularly the period from five months’ gestation to five years of age – presents a unique window of opportunity for learning. As young children’s and kids’ brains are highly plastic (adaptable), teaching your child to learn Chinese and English during this critical period can produce long-lasting benefits.

Repetition

“Again, again!” There’s a reason small children drive us crazy with their requests to do or hear the same thing over and over: young children learn best through repetition. Here’s what the experts have to say…

“You should repeat a stimulus until habituation occurs; then stop.” (Susan Ludington-Hoe)

“A toddlers masters an activity by repeating it; at the same time, she is programming and strengthening the neural pathways in her brain. Allow – and even encourage – your toddlers’ to repeat activities if they involve new skills she is developing.” (Winifred Conkling, author of Smart-Wiring Your Baby’s Brain)

“Going over the story [in a book] more than once enables a kids to learn new vocabulary items well enough to use them in answer to questions.” (Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn)

Stimulation

As parents, we have a critical part to play in helping our young children realize their full intellectual potential. The time for action is in very early childhood, because toddlers and babies love to learn, and they learn effortlessly. Here’s what the experts have to say…

“The best time to tap into your baby’s innate abilities, the capacities that all young children are born with, is when his brain cells are rapidly growing and making new connections.” (Makoto Shichida)

“Never forget that when you are giving young children visual, auditory, and tactile stimulation with increased frequency, intensity and duration that you are actually physically growing his brain.” (Glenn Doman, founder of the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential)

“Improve your kids’ ability to learn by using more than one of the five senses. When we use different senses we create multiple encoding, which increases the number of sites where information is stored.” (Winifred Conkling)

“There is, however, a limit to how much stimulation kids should have. Too many toys, activities, and outings can create confusion and actually work to a child’s detriment, hampering his ability to focus. babies are usually pretty good at telling us when they are bored but not when they are over-stimulated. Their behavior is often the only sign.” (Lise Eliot)

Now you know the basics, it’s time to design a personalized teaching program for toddlers. From birth, be sure to speak, sing and play music to your young children as much as possible. To enhance communication and reduce frustration, you might consider helping your young children to learn Chinese and other languages earlier.. Any time from four months of age, you can begin teaching reading, learn Chinese and math. And don’t forget to make time for encouraging your kids’ physical development.