The down payment assistance groups still await the decision from Judge Friedman on the HUD rule. The stay on the rule will be in place until he rules. He remarked that he would try to have this done by Feb. 29th but that is not a drop dead date. DPA will still be able to be used until he rules.

MBA has pulled back their support for DPA in the FHA modernization bill. This is to try to relieve pressure by the House version to get the bill passed. This is the only major sticking point left in getting the bill passed. If the Senate version prevails, all seller funded DPA will be eliminated.

There is also language in the Presidents 2009 budget to emiminate seller funded DPA unless Congress gives HUD an aditional 1.6 billion to support it. This is also linked to HUD getting risk based pricing if they do not recieve the increase.