Albany Field Office Director Jaime Forero speaking at Schenectady's Open House Event

Albany Field Office Director Jaime Forero, at his first official event in his new position, recently joined Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy, City leaders Carm Basile and Eric Shiling, educational leaders, and others at the City's Open House Weekend to celebrate the importance of home ownership and giving people an opportunity to share in the American Dream.

The Sunday afternoon event, which attracted hundreds of City residents, took place at the Schenectady Central Park Rose Garden.

The event focused on City efforts to promote greater homeowners opportunities among its residents and highlighted the City's groundbreaking "Key to the City" program. The City of Schenectady partners with Banking, Real-estate and civic organizations to provide mortgages with low interest rates, low upfront costs and no PMI to potential homebuyers. Jaime said "This initiative is representative of successful private public partnerships that are reinforcing our housing markets." The event also provided an opportunity to address efforts to keep people in their homes. HUD data indicate that from June 2011 to June 2012, the number of homeowners in Schenectady County who were delinquent or in foreclosure jumped 19 percent to 1,625 loans. This represents 9.5 percent of all home loans in Schenectady County, which is also above the national average of 7.7 percent. That is why, in his remarks, Jaime stressed the importance of people receiving either pre-purchase counseling or foreclosure counseling as a way of decreasing the likelihood of their defaulting or losing their home.

"While U.S. foreclosure activity has decreased for 20 straight months, it is still an issue in many New York counties, like Schenectady, and may continue to depress housing prices for some time. But this Administration is working hard and has proposed numerous programs to help troubled homeowners across the country. And we did get some good news recently when the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that American home sales climbed recently to a two-year high, and that home prices rose in the spring in 19 of America's largest cities," Jaime stated.