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Mortgage Matters is your go-to show for all things home financing. Join Roland and Heidi as they break down the ins and outs of the mortgage world. From first-time homebuyers to seasoned investors, we’re here to guide you with expert insights, real talk, and the latest market trends. Whether you're looking to buy smart or refinance right, Mortgage Matters is your trusted source for smarter decisions and financial freedom. Tune in and take control of your home financing journey.
Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Roland Daniels 0:43
Good morning Las Vegas. Welcome to mortgage matters. I'm your host, Roland Daniels, a certified mortgage advisor with Geneva financial. My NMLS number is 355859, company. NMLS number is 42056, and of course, I'm here this morning with my fantastic co host, Heidi Griffith, good morning. Heidi, well, good morning. Happy Sunday. Happy Sunday. How are you? I am fantastic.
Heidi Griffith 1:11
Good to hear. I am. Heidi Griffith, I'm also a mortgage advisor and your Director of Client Services. My NMLS number is 2247754, Hey. Thanks for tuning in. I know it's early. It's Sunday to be up, yep, moving around, getting the blood flowing. I'm super excited today. I am too. See he's sitting on my left. Yes, I gotta tell you, we have one of our favorite guests that stopped by the studio this morning. We've got Kevin Hickey, Nevada, rural housing's home ownership programs manager with us. I think he's going to give us a little bit of insight, drop some knowledge on us. He does incredible work with Nevada to achieve home ownership through down payment assistance and other fantastic programs. And actually, I think we're going to talk about one of those today, and we'll hear more from him in just one second. First, I just want to remind you about an important opportunity we've got coming up next Saturday, right next Saturday? March, the first March, the first that's our path to home ownership workshop. It is. That's the class that we actually do alongside CPLC. CPLC, yep, yep. And it's an amazing class. Maybe, really, if you've tuned in before, you know it's a must for anybody who's looking to buy a home, especially if you're a first time home buyer, this is where you get to meet and hear from HUD counselors. We talk about everything from budgeting to what homeowners insurance is and how that works, to the mortgage process, the gamut how to work on your credit. Yeah, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. And guess what we have we have lunch? Do we have snacks? And we have snacks? All right, I love snacks. Snacks are delicious. That class is actually from 830 in the morning until three, about three, yep. And you can either give us a call if you'd like to register. We're at 702-210-2057 again, that number is 702-210-2057 or you can even visit our Facebook page, mortgage matters radio, and you can register right there. There'll be a link to register online from there. So that's exciting. And before we get into today's special guest segment, I'd like to share something that's at the heart of what we do. Buying a home is more than a financial transaction. It's a path to stability, security and generational wealth, and yet, too many people still face unnecessary barriers when it comes to home ownership. That's why Roland and I are committed to advocating for housing equality, affordability and access for all we believe in formed communities are empowered communities, and we're here to help make sure everyone has the tools they need to succeed. We do so with that in mind, let's talk about Nevada Rural Housing and what they're doing to make homeownership more accessible across the state. Kevin, welcome Good morning. Thank you. I told Kevin, when he sat down this morning that the chair he's sitting in is his. If anyone joins us in the studio, we let them know that that is your chair. Kevin, well,
Kevin Hickey 3:59
I appreciate that. Thank you for stopping by. Thanks for having me. I'm always glad to be here. How's Nevada? Rural Nevada rule is ticking along, doing what we can to help home buyers buy in the current market with higher interest rates and higher home costs, there is still a path forward, as you and Roland know for sure, and so we're just continuing with our programs and making it as possible as we can. I love it.
Heidi Griffith 4:25
I love it. So we've been talking lately about the mortgage credits, the mortgage certificate credits, right? Yeah. And I think that's a big one, and it gets kind of overlooked, yeah. You know, we talk about Down Payment Assistance a lot, and obviously you offer down payment assistance programs, some really good programs in rural areas. And remember, we've talked about this in the past, if you've tuned in, rural does not just necessarily mean, you know, horses and wide open spaces. It doesn't mean just Pahrump or pH or up north. It. Means areas. And can you explain what? Actually, sure.
Kevin Hickey 5:03
So our area of eligibility is determined by the state legislature, right? And we can serve areas with population up to 150,000 so you might be thinking, well, there's far more than 150,000 people, almost a million, right? Almost 3 million. So, but it's based on tax District, which is often cities. You know, Las Vegas is a tax district Henderson's one North Las Vegas is one. And then you have unincorporated Clark County. So we know enterprise paradise, Sunrise Manor, Spring Valley. Those are all separate tax districts, right? So there are tax districts right here in the Vegas valley that actually fall below that 150 150,000 population limit, right? And that is Summerland, south wind, 135 Winchester, smack in the middle of the valley. How can that possibly be rule? It is based off of our definition given by the state legislature. So Winchester, and then the other ones, Whitney out by Henderson. And that's a big one. That's a big one, yep. That's where we see the majority of the activity in our program there, and then Winchester, and some in Summerlin south as well. So there is very real possibility
Heidi Griffith 6:05
here, yes, that we actually had a housing class. Yeah,
Kevin Hickey 6:09
in Whitney. Was great. Great. Was it the library?
Heidi Griffith 6:14
Yep, that was a good time. So, yeah, so you've got those programs available. They're available in rural areas, right?
Kevin Hickey 6:20
So everywhere outside of the Vegas valley, so Boulder City, Param Mesquite, Laughlin, all those places are eligible, right?
Heidi Griffith 6:26
And along with those, and they are great programs. Along with those programs, let's talk about the mortgage
Kevin Hickey 6:34
Yes, to get credit. So like you'd mentioned, we do have those down payment assistance programs, and those kind of get all the attention as they should, because there are programs that help folks clear that hurdle of having a down payment it's hard to save. You know that down payment to get into a home, and so that's why those programs exist. But there's also another program called a mortgage credit certificate, and what that is is it allows a borrower to get $1 for dollar tax credit on a percentage of the mortgage interest they pay every year. So you know, borrowers or home buyers may know that a portion of their payment they make every month is their mortgage, and another portion of the payment is the interest on that mortgage. And so with this program, you can get $1 dollar for dollar, tax credit of up to 20% of that interest you pay every year for the entire 30 year life of the loan. And if you refinance that loan somewhere down the road, you can have the MCC reissued to continue to get that benefit. Yeah, because
Heidi Griffith 7:35
you told me about a story that you actually were working with someone who just reached out, right? Because
Kevin Hickey 7:41
that's a great story. Thank you. It is I I'm glad you remember that, because it is a great story. So we have a home buyer who used the program back in 2009 to purchase a home that sounds
Heidi Griffith 7:50
like yesterday. It's not, I know
Kevin Hickey 7:53
it's not. And had the mortgage credit certificate. She had just recently refinanced the loan and reached out to have her MCC reissued, which is fantastic, because here we are 16 years later, and she's still benefiting from that MCC every, yeah, every year for the original 30 year life of the loan, exactly, well, so that's just money that
Heidi Griffith 8:13
comes back into your pocket. So as long as she owns that property,
Kevin Hickey 8:17
right, as long she owns it and continues to live in it, right, then she'll, then she'll get that tax credit for that original 30 year timeline for the loan. So it has to be your primary residence, primary residence. Yeah, exactly. So. So, yeah, that 20% so what does that actually mean in terms of real dollars, right? So we have a calculator on our website specifically for the MCC you can get there directly at h al mcc.org, so Hal stands for home at last, which is the name of the program, right? So Hal, mcc.org, there's a calculator on there that gives you an example of what that means. So on a $350,000 loan that has an interest rate of seven and a half percent, that would equal about $5,100, in federal tax savings the first year. Wow. So that's money that comes back as $1 for dollar tax credit. So folks might think of, well, I already get the write off on a mortgage, on the mortgage interest, right? The beautiful thing is, with the MCC you still get that mortgage interest write off. It's just you might have paid, but we'll pick a random number, $15,000 in interest that year, right? Then you'll get a write off on that 10,000 because 5000 came back as tax credits. So you still get that mortgage interest write off on the on, on the portion that you didn't get the credit on, and then the actual dollar for dollar tax credit. So, but the credit is cold, hard cash. Hold hard cash. So if you're, if so, if you pay into your taxes every year through your paycheck, like, you know, like most folks withholding, this is going to be a $5,000 tax credit on that. So if you've paid in and you're going to get a ref. Fund anyway, that 5000 would be on top of it, because it's reducing your what you owe on taxes, right? That much? Wow, it comes, it actually comes back to you. So now, if you didn't have a tax burden that was $5,000 you would get up to what you owe. And when I say what you owe, it's not what you might have left to pay the IRS after withholding and all that. It's your total tax liability. So if
Heidi Griffith 10:24
you owed, if your total tax liability was $3,000 the mortgage credit was 5000 you would get that three you
Kevin Hickey 10:31
would get the 3000 and the remaining 2000 would be available for the next three years. I love that as a credit if it were necessary. So
Heidi Griffith 10:38
if your taxes went up next year exactly, and the credit for that year didn't cover it. We could use last year's if we didn't already Exactly.
Kevin Hickey 10:46
And from the from the homebuyer perspective, it sounds like a daunting process, but all you do is you get a you get a mortgage credit certificate, an actual document with a number on it, and you file that with a specific form from the IRS with your taxes every year. And if you use something like Turbo Tax or whatnot, that's a that's a question in there, do you have a mortgage credit certificate? And you put that information in and it calculates automatically, so it is not a difficult process for the home buyer to benefit from that tax credit. Easy peasy.
Roland Daniels 11:19
And Kevin, I have a question for you, what if I don't want to use any of the down payment assistance programs associated with Nevada Rural Housing, am I still able to utilize the MCC you
Kevin Hickey 11:30
are? So it's what we call a standalone MCC that means it's not paired with a Nevada Rural Housing Loan, and that MCC can be paired with just about any other loan, whether it's like an in house loan here with Geneva financial or elsewhere, the only thing it can't be paired with is a as what we call a tax exempt bond program. And there's only two of those in the state, because it's a state or government kind of option available and so and that's because those funds are the same, the MCC is funded the same way as those programs, so you can't benefit from both at the same time, but if you're using a program that provides down payment assistance that's not funded through tax exempt bonds, then you can get a real win win, and that is the down payment and the tax credit. So
Roland Daniels 12:17
I can get down payment from another program outside of Nevada Rural Housing, and can still take advantage of the MCC
Kevin Hickey 12:23
as long as the property is in, as long as the property is in a rural area and the and the loan isn't funded through a tax exempt, you know, mechanism, yeah. So there it's, as you both know, it kind of gets forgotten, which is unfortunate, because, you know, we, I think we've done such a great job of pushing out that it can help the borrower qualify for the loan up front. So loan officers think of it as a well, the borrower qualifies without that credit, so we don't need the MCC. But I always want to come back and say, well, the MCC exists for the annual tax credit. Everybody needs a fringe benefit that it can help you qualify up front, but the Bennet, the point of it is to save you on those taxes every year. And who, if you qualify, who wouldn't want to save? I want it 20% of the mortgage interest they pay every single year for 30 years. Absolutely, it's insane. And if using that example, I don't remember the exact number, but the $350,000 loan at seven and a half percent interest, if you had that loan for the full 30 years, or lived in that property for the full 30 years, you would get, I think it's around $90,000 total in tax credits over that 30 year period.
Heidi Griffith 13:35
Is there, are there any qualifying parameters that you have to have to utilize that there
Kevin Hickey 13:40
are so it is a first time homebuyer program, and first time means you haven't owned in the last three years. So it doesn't mean NEVER you just can't have owned a primary residence in the previous three years. If you are a veteran or if you're purchasing in what we call a qualified census tract or targeted area. Then that that that requirement is waived, so you you don't have to be a first time borrower. And there are income and purchase price limits based on county, and all of that can be found on the website at Hall mcc.org
Roland Daniels 14:13
is that where we can find the targeted areas as well? Correct? Yeah, there's targeted
Kevin Hickey 14:17
area information there. The other benefit to targeted areas is that the income and purchase price limits are higher to encourage folks to purchase in those areas. So in addition to waiving that first time buyer requirement, you get that that bump in income and purchase price for targeted areas, right?
Heidi Griffith 14:33
And we can still use that launch pad program in those areas too, can't we? Is that still
Kevin Hickey 14:38
available? Launch Pad is available in targeted, targeted areas, right?
Heidi Griffith 14:43
Yep, I'm sure those funds are probably still dwindling down, hopefully something on the back burner for us.
Kevin Hickey 14:48
Yeah, and yeah, we, we hope to share more about the next version of that program soon. We are working on it, so that's encouraging, at least. And and just. To go back on the MCC real quick. And when I had said like tax exempt bond programs, launch pad would be one of those examples. So we can't couple, can't pair launch pad and MCC together, because they're both funded through tax exempt bonds, which I know it's getting in the weeds a little bit, but it kind of explains, well, that's the reason why you know that those can't be paired together, but it can be paired with home. At last, it can be paired with home as possible, DPA, hip DPA through Nevada housing division. And then it can also be paired with, like I said, in house, loans or otherwise.
Heidi Griffith 15:30
And again, if you don't need down payment assistance, you haven't owned a home in the last three years, you're going to move into a air quote, rural area. You know, an area that Nevada Rural Housing, you
Roland Daniels 15:42
might as well take advantage. You might
Heidi Griffith 15:44
it would be silly not to, right?
Kevin Hickey 15:46
I like said, Who doesn't want in, just using that example, who doesn't want $5,000 off their taxes every year, dollar for dollar, dollar for dollar, Yep,
Heidi Griffith 15:54
yeah. So my suggestion is, if you're listening, if you're tuning in, and you're thinking about purchasing a home, and especially if you're thinking about purchasing a home in a rural area. And I would reach out to a lender. You can give us a call or text us if you have any questions about what areas are considered rural. I would really consider letting your lender know that this is something that you want to use, right,
Kevin Hickey 16:15
and that's just it too. I don't think that it's not being used not intentionally. I just think it's forgotten, forgotten, right? And, you know, and here locally, the the availability to use it is smaller because those pockets, it's not the whole Vegas valley, but there is very much opportunity to use, to use the MCC locally, but it's, you know, for listeners, it's important to remember that and bring it up to your loan officer, so that they know. And with that, we do have a network of approved lenders who have taken our training and have are approved to offer the programs. Of course, Heidi and Roland, here are two of our VIPs. So you do need to be working with an approved lender to get the MCC, even if it's just the MCC and not the down payment assistance part, they still have to be an approved lender in order to get that Yes. Because
Roland Daniels 17:06
any contracts that we receive, we always look up the address just to make sure and double check to see if we can take advantage of the MCC 100%
Heidi Griffith 17:15
and if we don't know whether it's a targeted area or not, we just reach out to Kevin. Yes, that's right. It's a good thing.
Kevin Hickey 17:21
And if you can tell me how to clone the two of you, that'd be great.
Heidi Griffith 17:25
That's frightening, Kevin,
Kevin Hickey 17:28
from a home buyer perspective, from a home buyer perspective, because you're two of the best Well,
Heidi Griffith 17:33
we appreciate you. We feel exactly the same about you. I'm serious. That is your chair. Anytime you want to stop by, it's open. Thank you. So I appreciate you stopping by and giving us that information. Again, Nevada, rural housing does have some programs that are available to assist people. You know, the last time I pulled numbers, it was about 68% of people. It's the down payment that really is holding folks back from purchasing a home. It is the number one barrier to home, number one barrier. And with programs like Nevada Rural it really does make homeownership more accessible. And we're going to talk about a couple of things today that you know have been heavy on my mind. There's a lot of stuff going on right now. I know my suggestion to everyone is turn off the TV. Sometimes we got to turn it off and just kind of regroup and take some breaths and all kinds of stuff. But we should also be aware. And there are some things that are taking place in our arena, in the housing arena, and we just want to make you aware of potential changes, changes that have already happened, and that kind of stuff. Kevin, you're more than willing to hang out while we go over this. If you have anything that you'd like to add, we would love to hear your thoughts. So let's start off, Roland, let's talk about some significant developments that could actually reshape the landscape of homeownership and housing rights. Housing rights are important, right? They are. So we've got the potential dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. You've probably heard it called the CFPB. It's been in the news a lot lately. Their website is currently down. There is a strong likelihood that it will be completely dismantled, and then we actually have got substantial layoffs that are proposed at HUD. That's the Department of Housing and Urban Development. These are two agencies. They're pivotal. They are here to safeguard consumers. Consumers are all of us. We are all consumers. They're here to protect us, and even more importantly, where we sit. They're here to ensure that fair housing practices are followed. And you know these two items, you know the dismantling of the CFPB and what that looks like, and is Doge going to come in and replace it with something we don't know, but we do know that. That these entities, they protect consumers from predatory financing practices, right? They do. So we're going to talk about the CFPB in a minute. It was put together after the housing crisis in 2008 it was part of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform Act created in 2010 and yeah. And so the CFPB actually was, was open in 2010 and I was a realtor at the time, and I remember having to learn all of those changes and recognizing at that point how vital they were, and were these entities perfect. I'm going to say no, I'm going to say that most aren't, but what I will tell you, from personal experience, is they look out for all of us. They stop lenders from doing whatever they want. Unfortunately, we saw a lot of weird stuff that happened pre 2008 especially in the lending arena, and because that's where we sit, I think it's super important to us.
Roland Daniels 20:59
It is, yeah. So when it comes to the jurisdiction of the CFPB, it oversees banks, credit unions, security firms, payday lenders, mortgage servicing operations, foreclosure relief services that we take advantage of, absolutely debt collectors and other financial companies operating right here in the United States, yep.
Heidi Griffith 21:21
So they're the supervisor for all of these entities, right? I think that once we remove some of those protections and or, you know, even if the laws are still in place, right? We talked about this earlier. Kevin and I had a conversation about this, even if that stuff is still in place, there's no enforcement. And that makes, you know, scams for seniors more relevant. That makes redlining and things that lenders could probably do that's predatory. So there's just a lot of things, I mean, weaken consumer protections, altered mortgage regulations. And the biggest one, in my opinion, because it really is something that was so important when it was done. And you actually had some of your co members from nareb on the radio,
Roland Daniels 22:10
the National Association of real estate brokers. And
Heidi Griffith 22:13
there's a housing event. You're going to be at the housing event, right? There's a housing event coming up on the 22nd I actually joined na rib after I met with everybody the other day, you did because I learned a lot of really important things. First and foremost, narep was the driving force behind the Fair Housing Act. Didn't know that. I've been a realtor since I'm gonna age myself, 1996 moved right into the mortgage world. Know all about fair housing. Understand Fair Housing complaint. Did not know that narub was actually the driving force behind that, as well as HUD right Housing and Urban Development. So they do a lot to make sure that people are treated fairly. And it's important because there's this is at risk right now. If HUD releases some of these departments Fair Housing could be kind of little willy nilly, because we
Roland Daniels 23:08
are hearing there's approximately 40 to 50% of the staff are going to be removed, laid off, or whatever that looks like.
Heidi Griffith 23:15
Yeah, and the numbers change so frequently, but last I heard, it was going to be about 4600 humans that would be without jobs.
Roland Daniels 23:22
Crazy. Yeah. So when it comes to the CFPB, their core functions are writing and enforcing rules for financial institutions, examining both banks and non bank financial institutions, monitoring and reporting on different markets, collecting and tracking consumer complaints. That is huge.
Heidi Griffith 23:46
The consumer complaint thing is big. We actually there's probably several times a month that when we're talking with folks, you know, because we we try and find resources for people in all areas of housing. So it's not just how do you get a mortgage? It's what happens if you can't make your payment this month because you lost your job, or what happens if mom's home is in probate or even in foreclosure? What types of resources do you have? We have, you know, HUD, counselors that will help with credit and help you understand that process. And you know, with HUD and cuts, we don't even know what that's going to look like, and that's scary, because HUD counselors are in place to help you as a consumer, with no outside noise, right? There's a lot, right? There
Roland Daniels 24:35
is a lot. And the CFP works to prevent unfair, right? Yeah, and deceptive and abuse practices by taking action against companies that are breaking the law. So if we don't have those, how should I say those instruments in place? What's going to stop them? Well, it's going to be interesting to
Heidi Griffith 24:57
see how it plays out. But what I will tell you is that. I will do whatever I humanly as one person can do. I will, I will do it, and we will give you whatever information we have. We're doing our best to stay on top of it. Because, like I said, it changes daily, right? It does, but we're doing our best to stay on top of it. I know we're tired. I know you know we we we feel like we've done and done and done, and we're just going to kind of sit back and we do as as consumers. We're consumers. So this all affects every one of us. We do need to stay on top of this, and we need to speak up and speak out. If you need to call a public official or email about these. This is the time it is. It really is definitely these two entities. And, you know, there's lots of other stuff going on, obviously, but this is affecting us in the housing world. First and foremost, fair housing. Fair Housing covers a whole lot of stuff, right?
Roland Daniels 25:54
It does everywhere, from race, color, religion, sex, natural origin, right? Absolutely.
Heidi Griffith 26:01
And that basically says that we can't discriminate based on those things,
Roland Daniels 26:05
including familial status and disabilities. That
Heidi Griffith 26:09
is correct. So there's been lawsuits that a landlord tried to tell a tenant that they wouldn't rent to them because they had a small child, you know, a single mom with a small child. There have been racial discrimination. You know, recently, there was a case in Chicago where a lender tried to tell an African American person that they couldn't purchase strictly because they were African American. Prior to CFPB, the lender didn't have to tell you why you didn't qualify, just that you didn't qualify. CFPB put in place that we actually, as lenders have to disclose the reason that we're denying the loan that is correct within 30 days in writing. So there's a lot of stuff going on. There is, there is, and I know that there's just so much more to talk about, but we are almost out of time. So what we'd like you to do is, if you have any questions about any of the stuff we're talking about, if you'd like to kind of understand what these these outlets do and how it could affect you, please always feel free to reach out. You can give us call or text us. We're at 702-210-2057, you can just leave us a message. If there's something you'd like to talk about, or like to hear us talk about on air, please let us know. If you need any resources, we will do our best to locate them for you. I really want to thank Kevin. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being part of Nevada Rural Housing. It's always really great to talk about seeing programs and work they're doing to help families in our community, right?
Roland Daniels 27:45
You can always go to our Facebook page, mortgage matters radio, that's right, where you can find the link for all of our upcoming classes events, or even to say hello, yeah.
Heidi Griffith 27:56
And you can actually, we post our Spotify link there, so if you're not up at 730 every Sunday, and you just happen to catch us this week, you can catch us on Spotify. The link will be there as well.
Roland Daniels 28:05
And before we go, we want to take a moment to reaffirm our mission. We are committed to standing up, seeking answers and providing the information that you need and where to get it, housing, equality, affordability and access for all aren't just ideas. They are our rights, and we have dedicated to to we are dedicated to continue the fight to make them a reality. But we can't do it alone. We invite you, our listeners, to join us in this mission, to stay aware, to stay involved and to be part of the change. So no matter where you are in your journey, keep pushing forward. Stay committed to your dreams. Believe in yourself and take each step with confidence. And as always, remember stay true to yourself and your mind. Bye. You.