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 NEW PLANS HELP NEW HOMEOWNERS USE TAX CREDIT

WASHINGTON (Nation's Building News) – The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has introduced two loan programs designed to help first-time homebuyers apply the new $8,000 tax credit toward down payments and closing costs.
The 90-Day Down Payment Assistance Program and the Mortgage Advantage Program will allow consumers to receive a short-term loan before filing for and receiving the federal tax credit. Consumers can apply these loans toward down payments and closing costs.
Both programs provide assistance of up to 5 percent on the first lien mortgage, but the 90-day program maxes out at $7,000 while the Mortgage Advantage Program’s limit is $6,000.
Repayment times also vary for the two programs, at 90 days and 120 days, respectively.
More information about these programs is available at the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs' website.

 TEXAS JOB LOSSES SLOW

AUSTIN (Austin American-Statesman, Dallas Morning News) – Texas saw its seventh consecutive month of job losses in May, but the decline was the smallest in a year, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Across the state, employers cut payrolls by 24,700 nonfarm jobs as the unemployment rate jumped to 7.1 percent from a revised 6.6 percent in April.
Job losses should slow in the coming months, but Keith Phillips with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' San Antonio branch does not expect a full labor market recovery until the second half of 2010.
Meanwhile, the Austin area stood alone for the fourth month in a row as the only large Texas metro area to add jobs.
The Austin–Round Rock area gained jobs at a rate of 0.5 percent in May compared with one year
earlier.
Austin last experienced negative job growth in January 2004.

 TEXAS WORKERS MORE CONFIDENT

TEXAS (Austin Business Journal) – The Texas Employee Confidence Index increased for the third month in a row, according to the Spherion Employment Report.
The index rose three points to 53.8 in May.
Report findings include:
●
Thirty-two percent of workers believe the economy is getting weaker (down from 42 percent in April).
●
Fifty-eight percent of workers believe fewer jobs are available (down from 70 percent in April).
●
Fifty percent of workers are confident in their ability to find a new job (up from 45 percent in April).

 SAN ANGELO LEEDS IN ZERO-ENERGY DESIGN

SAN ANGELO (San Angelo Standard-Times) – San Angelo has its first zero-energy Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) house. It's also the first zero-energy LEED home in the nation to be funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The three-bedroom, two-bath home is in the 800 block of West 18th St.
At 1,300 sf, the house was built to meet the needs of a low- to moderate-income family.
Total cost for the concept house was $105,000 with green additions to the lot bringing the total cost to about $152,000.
Two more zero-energy houses are planned for Rio Vista and Fort Concho.

 SAN ANTONIO RECEIVES DEFENSE FUNDING

SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Business Journal) – The U.S. House Armed Services Committee has approved $12.9 million for San Antonio defense projects.
Kelly Annex Field will receive $7.9 million of the funding for the planned upgrade of an aircraft maintenance building. The building will be brought up to code compliance.
The remaining $5 million will be used to produce unmanned aerial vehicles that use Blacklight Night Vision Advanced Technology.
This technology is manufactured by San Antonio–based Mission Technologies Inc.