#Pennsylvania Bad Credit Mortgage Lenders

Now is a good time to be a prospective home buyer in Pennsylvania, and a bad time to be a predatory lender. Pennsylvania has long been a good place to buy a home, with 71.3% of the housing market being home owners. Compared with the national average of 66.2%, one can see an impressive difference. That difference looks set to grow even wider, with new grants designed to fight predatory lending in the housing market and educate and protect home buyers. The average price of a home in Pennsylvania is significantly lower than the national average, tipping the low side of the scales at $97,000, while the national average is $119,600.

Now hundreds of thousands of families will have a great opportunity to find housing or keep the homes they have because of nearly $42 million in housing counseling grants announced recently by the commission of Housing and Urban Development.

The grants will help families in becoming first-time homeowners and remaining homeowners after the purchase. It s not all about home owners, as renters and homeless individuals and families will also benefit from the counseling offered by the grants. The Grants were awarded to 18 national and regional organizations and approximately 362 state and local housing counseling agencies.

The organizations will provide counseling services that will help meet the President's goal of increasing minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by the end of the decade, said Alphonso Jackson. Under the Bush Administration, more families are receiving counseling services than ever before and more families are purchasing and keeping their homes. This program also helps educate and protect them from predatory lenders.

Out of the nearly $42 million in housing counseling grants, $2.5 million is specifically designated to combat predatory lending in the state, including awards to 46 state and local organizations. Grantees will assist unwary borrowers to avoid unreasonably high interest rates, inflated appraisals, unaffordable repayment terms and other conditions that can result in a loss of equity, increased debt, default and even foreclosure. This means that buying a home in Pennsylvania just got a whole lot safer.

The organizations that provide housing counseling services help people become or remain homeowners or find rental housing. Prospective borrowers now have an even greater safety net available to them through this funding. The agencies and organizations will be on the lookout for unscrupulous lending institutions and practices and will help educate the homebuyer so they can be on the lookout for themselves as well.