The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® affordability index measures whether or not a typical family could qualify for a mortgage loan on a typical home. A typical home is defined as the national median-priced, existing single-family home as calculated by NAR. The typical family is defined as one earning the median family income as reported by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The prevailing mortgage interest rate is the effective rate on loans closed on existing homes from the Federal Housing Finance Board and HSH Associates, Butler, N.J. These components are used to determine if the median income family can qualify for a mortgage on a typical home.

To interpret the indices, a value of 100 means that a family with the median income has exactly enough income to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home. An index above 100 signifies that family earning the median income has more than enough income to qualify for a mortgage loan on a median-priced home, assuming a 20 percent down payment. For example, a composite HAI of 120.0 means a family earning the median family income has 120% of the income necessary to qualify for a conventional loan covering 80 percent of a median-priced existing single-family home. An increase in the HAI, then, shows that this family is more able to afford the median priced home.

The calculation assumes a down payment of 20 percent of the home price and it assumes a qualifying ratio of 25 percent. That means the monthly P&I payment cannot exceed 25 percent of a the median family monthly income.

 DAILY NEWS: When did your business start?
    Table Five Personal Chef Service: October 2006.
    DN: Why did you decide to open it?
    TFPCS: We discovered there was a niche that needed to be filled in the area for quality dining in the home by a professional chef. There is an endless array of great restaurants in the area, but we realized there were limited options for those who wanted to dine in and entertain at home with friends and family.
    DN: What type of products and services do you offer?
    TFPCS: We offer coursed dinner parties, family-style dinners, cocktail soirees, culinary consultation and cooking classes, to name a few. The Table Five service includes a personal consultation complete with menu crafting tailored to your tastes and dietary requirements, cooking, serving and clean up. Your kitchen will be left spotless and ready for breakfast the next morning.
    DN: What are your claims to being unique in your field?
    TFPCS: The seven years I spent working under great chefs in some of the area’s best restaurants and always reminding myself that cooking is an endless learning process. We pride ourselves in creating menus based on local bounty and, most importantly, local seafood whenever possible. Our motto is, “If it doesn’t swim here, don’t eat it.”
    DN: What challenges do you face in the current economy?
    TFPCS: Understanding our clientele, educating the market about our services and always going above and beyond for the customer. We have found that once people get to enjoy the experience of having a professional chef cook in their kitchen, they’ll find an excuse to have a dinner party.
Owner: Phillip McDonald Address: P.O. Box 9011, Miramar Beach, FL 32550 Phone: 850-496-5066 Hours: At your service daily and nightly Web site: www.TableFiveChef.com Business Philosophy: To provide clients with a unique dining experience in the comfort of their home or desired venue.

 Starting today, you don’t have to be speeding or swerving to be pulled over by a law enforcement officer.
    Motorists now can be stopped for failing to wear a seat belt and fined $93 as part of the primary enforcement of Florida’s safety belt requirements, according to a new law. Before today, failing to buckle up wasn’t reason enough for an officer to pull over a car.
    Motorists can be ticketed if either they or their front seat passengers fail to buckle up. All passengers under 18 also are required to wear seat belts regardless of where they are sitting.
    The bill also eliminates exemptions for passengers in pickup trucks.
    The revision of the former seat belt law is called the “Dori Slosberg and Katie Marchetti Safety Belt Law.” Dori Slosberg and Katie Marchetti both lost their lives as a result of car crashes that happened while they were not wearing safety belts. Dori Slosberg, 14, died in 1996 and Katie Marchetti, 16, died in 2006.
    “We’re going to be on the lookout no more or no less than we have in the past,” said Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Harwood. “When we see it now, we just don’t have to wait for another violation.”
    According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 87 percent of drivers wear seat belts in states with a primary seat belt law. That’s 14 percent higher than states with a secondary seat belt law.
    A 2008 NHTSA study reported states with primary enforcement laws ranked in the top five for safety belt usage. Florida ranked 35th in the nation.
    The NHTSA estimates Florida can expect to save 124 lives each year with the new law, and 1,700 people will be spared serious injuries. Estimates also show costs associated with accidents would be reduced by $408 million.
    In 2007, statistics show that seat belt use saved 857 lives and $3.8 billion in costs.
    The federal government has provided financial incentives for states to pass primary seat belt laws as part of the 2005 reauthorization of the highway bill known as the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Act. Legislation had to be passed and signed into law by June 30 to qualify for the federal money.
    Florida has met the deadline and should receive $35.5 million from the federal government.
    “Generally when new laws come in, we try to educate the public a little about what the new laws are,” Harwood said. “The seat belt law has been in existence for a period of time, but we’re still going to educate because a lot of people don’t realize it’s a primary reason for a stop now.”

The NHTSA estimates Florida can expect to save 124 lives each year with the new law and 1,700 people will be spared serious injuries.

  Consumer spending habits might have changed, but people still are taking vacations. In this third week of tourist season, businesses along the Emerald Coast said the season is off to a good start, even if area unemployment numbers are higher this summer than last.
    “People still want to go on vacation, but they still want a value,” said Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Council executive director Kate Wilkes. “I think Northwest Florida has a lot of advantages … there’s a lot of ways to vacation without spending a fortune.”
    As in previous years, Wilkes said, a lot of visitors from Southeastern states are coming to area beaches because they can get here by driving rather than flying, she said.
    Hotels and resorts are optimistic for the summer but can’t predict exactly how well they will do because of how many people are booking rooms last minute, said Emerald Coast Convention and Visitor Bureau president and CEO Darrell C. Jones.
    Recognizing that people are looking to cut costs wherever they can, many lodgings have reduced prices or created package deals to draw in customers, and it seems to be working so far, he said.
    Nashville, Tenn., residents Sean and Beth Rogers wanted to spend their first real vacation together on the beach, and a friend suggested Destin as a wallet-friendly option with lots to offer.
    “I didn’t want to spend too much on lodging because we wanted to be able to do things,” said Sean Rogers as he and Beth waited to go parasailing for the first time. “The price (for the area) was right.”
    At Dockside Water Sports on Destin Harbor, Dockside manager Jane Wilson said they haven’t really seen a reduction in the number of customers, but people are definitely bargain-hunting.
    Beginning in January, the business started getting calls for rental prices and people often inquired about possible discounts, Wilson said.
    “People are still doing stuff, (but) they let us know the economy is bad,” she said.
    Though the summer season already is going well for High Tide Restaurant and Oyster Bar in Fort Walton Beach, general manger Danny Horgan said they definitely have detected some differences in spending habits.
    “They’re not as frivolous with their money as they have been,” he said.
    Recently, a family of five came into the restaurant for lunch and ordered 10 oysters and a sandwich to share. Others are cutting costs even more, opting to prepare their own lunches and going out for only an evening meal, Horgan said.
    Despite those reductions, the restaurant has already seen a 25 percent increase compared to the same time last year, and Horgan said he anticipates more improvement with the upcoming Fourth of July weekend.
    “The way things are going, I anticipate having a better summer than last summer, definitely,” Horgan said. “I think when (the season) is over with, a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised.”

    Schools in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties continued to rank among the best in Florida, according to annual school grades released Thursday.
    Despite four schools dropping a letter grade, Okaloosa took the top spot for the percentage of grade-A schools in the state, with Santa Rosa not far behind. Walton County schools also saw significant improvement, with all 14 schools ranked at grade B or higher.
    “Our efforts are paying off, (and) it’s evidenced in these scores” said Walton County Superintendent of Schools Carlene Anderson.
    The school grades were created in 1999 to help keep the public informed about the performance of schools. The grades are based on the results of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in reading, writing, math and science.
    Following the state trend, Choctawhatchee and Niceville high schools dropped a letter grade, but school officials say they already are making plans to help students improve.
    “Choctawhatchee and Niceville realize they have some work to do,” said Okaloosa County Superintendent of Schools Alexis Tibbetts. “We’re going to improve.”
    C h o c t a w h a t c h e e dropped from a grade of B to a C. But Principal Cindy Gates said the students who were performing below expected levels already had been identified Thursday, and a plan to improve not only their scores but their learning ability was in the works.
    “We’re not sticking our heads in the sand, we’re moving forward,” Gates said. “My real goal is to make sure those students are successful in their moving forward.”
    In Santa Rosa County, three schools improved by a letter grade and three schools dropped a letter grade. And while Superintendent of Schools Tim Wyrosdick said he was excited to see students improve in areas the school district had focused on during the previous year, all the schools — regardless of their grades — had room for improvement.
    In the next year, he said, emphasis will continue to be placed on subjects such as math and science because students haven’t reached their full potential in those areas yet.
    “We’re very optimistic about the direction we’re traveling with our curriculum,” Wyrosdick said. “(But) we’re not going to be satisfied until we’re all A (schools). Any other goal is really selling ourselves short.”
    Similar trends were identified statewide. Sixtytwo percent of schools received an “A” on the annual report card, and only 1 percent of schools failed.
    Even as the scores were released, several government officials criticized the grading system, saying its scope was too limited.
    “Public school accountability and progress should be based on the whole body of work that schools, teachers and students accomplish throughout the year rather than on a oneday snapshot,” said Rep. Franklin Sands, Democratic leader of the Florida House of Representatives.

DESTIN – Nothing could top the Emerald Coast for next year’s Florida Harley Owners Group’s state rally, the organization’s Bruce Fuller says.

“After being rally coordinator for seven years, this is the best location yet for a rally in the state of Florida,” Fuller said. “We have looked at Key Largo, looked at the Gainesville area, we have looked at the Ocala area … After being (in Destin) for two days, the selection committee made a decision our bid was going to be for Destin/Fort Walton Beach. We are not looking any further.”

For one thing, Fuller said, the area’s roads are terrific for riding, but largely unexplored by Harley riders from other parts of the Southeast. For another, “when we’re bringing in thousands of riders, they’re all going to be looking for a place to stay. You definitely have the lodging to handle it. You also have sites there for our activities, which are terrific.”

Fuller said Emerald Grande, Hampton Inn and the Days Inn – which has a partnership with the national Harley Owners Group – already have offered to contract out rooms.

Fuller said local support and sponsorship are essential for the Florida group to approve the bid. Each local chapter in the 50,000 member group, and each Harley dealership, gets a vote, he said, and sponsorships “send a message people are serious.”

Much of the sponsorship funding goes to advertising and promoting the rally among Harley owners, Fuller added.

At its meeting last week, the Okaloosa County’s Tourist Development Council discussed the importance of lining up some sponsorships before Florida HOG votes on next year’s sites at this year’s rally, which is in St. Augustine in October.

TDC Chairman Ken Paine said the TDC also should tell people the rally doesn’t mean the Hell’s Angels will descend on the Emerald Coast. Florida HOG’s members are professionals and parents with a median income of $85,000.

“You can’t get any more ‘family’ than our organization,” Fuller said. “I’m retired Army, 22 years. My wife, prior to becoming a Realtor, was general manager of a major oil company.”

The international head of the Harley Owners Group, Fuller added, was a retired admiral.

“We’re a group of people that’s going to ride and have fun,” Fuller said. “This is not a wild group, we’re a fun group.”

And potentially a profitable one for the Emerald Coast; 95 percent of those who attend will ride in on their bikes, Fuller said.

“You’re not going to be carrying food, ice chests, all the other stuff, you’re going to be buying everything you need here,” he said.

Based on “record setting” interest in this year’s rally, Fuller said plenty of Harley riders will want to attend. Like many other tourists, they are finding it more cost-effective to stay in-state rather than take long trips.

“Our turnouts are gonna be huge,” he said.
WANT TO BE A SPONSOR?
Visit www.flstatehogrally.com and click on the “committee” link for Bruce Fuller’s contact information.

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS
Are you OK? Walton deputies want to know
    The Walton County Sheriff’s Office is inviting residents to sign up themselves or elderly family members on the “Are You Okay?” call list.
    According to a Sheriff’s Office news release, dispatchers call all of the approximately 40 residents on the list each morning, and if they do not answer after several calls, a deputy is sent to their home to do a safety check.
    “For shut-ins, this could be their only contact with someone throughout the day,” said Rhonda Roberson, the lead communications officer.
    A deputy found an unconscious woman inside her home after she did not answer her phone, the release said.
    For more information, call 892-8186 or go to www.waltonso.org.

 WASHINGTON (AP) — Rates for 30-year home loans edged up this week, remaining above record lows reached over the spring.
    The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.42 percent, up from 5.38 percent a week earlier, mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday.
    “ M i x e d e c o n o m i c reports on the state of the housing market helped hold mortgage rates fairly flat,” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in a statement.
    Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to a record low of 4.78 percent earlier this year. But then they rose as high as 5.6 percent earlier this month after yields on long-term government debt, which are closely tied to mortgages rate, climbed as investors worried the huge surplus of government debt hitting the market could trigger inflation.
    Since then, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has fallen back from an eight-month high of 4.01 percent reached last week to 3.61 percent Thursday afternoon.
    Although there are signs the troubled U.S. housing market is beginning to stabilize, higher rates could threaten or slow down any recovery, since prospective buyers would be able to borrow less money and might decide to h o l d o f f o n t h e i r purchases.
    Economists worry the housing market is so fragile that rates that would have seemed attractive a decade ago are no longer very enticing.
    Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates Monday through Wednesday of each week from lenders around the country. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a given day.
    The average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 4.87 percent, down from 4.89 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac.
    Rates on five-year, adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.99 percent, up from 4.97 percent a week earlier. Rates on one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 4.93 percent from 4.95 percent.
    The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide fee for all loans in Freddie Mac’s survey averaged 0.7 point.

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Scrambling to stay current with his mortgage, Craig Vale feared he was surely headed into foreclosure this year. Then the unemployed print-shop-equipment operator heard about a new program for financially troubled homeowners.

Last week, Vale, 59, and his wife, Bobbie, cleared the final hurdle to a “trial loan modification” that will cut their interest rate, lower their monthly payment and give the Orange City couple a fighting chance to save their home.

“My wife lost her job after she became disabled; then I got laid off,” he said. “We were still scraping by, but the handwriting was on the wall. Then we heard about this program that seemed exactly for people like us who had never been late on their mortgage. And it gave us some hope.”

Tens of thousands of people nationwide have tapped the federal Making Home Affordable initiative, the Obama administration said last week. The program, enacted in March, aims to help the millions of people current on their mortgages but struggling with payments and those delinquent on their loans.

Less than three months after its launch, more than 120,000 homeowners have received loan modifications and a few thousand more have gotten refinancings through the program, the Treasury Department reported. The early results are in stark contrast to last year’s ill-fated Hope for Homeowners program, which fell flat after it was beset by red tape and eligibility complications. It drew fewer than 100 applications nationwide after several months.

The new Making Home Affordable program still has a long way to go before it has measurable effect on the nation’s flood of foreclosures. Still, those on the front line of the crisis say it is the most promising initiative so far.

“There’s no comparison to other programs,” said Rosa Miro, a housing counselor with Consumer Credit Counseling of Central Florida who worked with the Vales. “I was never able to put even one client in any of those programs. This one at least gives people a real opportunity to recover.”

What the new program does differently, among other things, is throw some serious money — $75 billion — at the problem to provide financial incentives for all involved.

Financial incentives

In addition to getting more favorable terms, homeowners who qualify for the program and stay current with their loan will get as much as $1,000 a year taken directly off their mortgage principal over five years. Lenders and mortgage servicers will also get $1,000 for processing an application to modify or refinance a loan, plus another $1,000 if they approve the application.

That’s a big change from the past, when loan servicers got nothing for modification work but cash incentives from lenders for doing a foreclosure.

One of the big improvements, homeowner advocates say, was the passage only weeks ago of a federal law that shields mortgage servicers from lawsuits by angry investors in mortgage-backed securities.

The potential for litigation from investors has long been viewed as discouraging mortgage servicers from working with distressed homeowners trying to obtain relief. Simply put, servicers didn’t want to risk being sued if, by modifying people’s loans, they reduced the potential payoff of mortgages bundled and sold as investments.

The shield law and other such measures are gradually changing lenders’ and servicers’ attitudes toward working with troubled homeowners, said Jeff Perdue, president of Orlando Home Mortgage, a brokerage that works mostly with the new program’s refinance guidelines.

“We finally have something we can really work with,” he said. “It’s not a watershed by any means, but it is revolutionary compared to Hope for Homeowners. At least it’s making a dent.”

Foreclosures still soar

Still unclear is how much of a dent the program is making in the pile of foreclosures. Treasury officials would not release data on how many homeowners have applied, so the program’s approval rate is unknown.

In addition to the more than 120,000 loan modifications processed in the first three months, 3,650 homeowners have refinanced their mortgages through Making Home Affordable — a relatively meager total given the number of homeowners in distress. More than 2.4 million new foreclosures are expected by year’s end, according to an estimate by the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer-watchdog and research group. And that estimate could wind up being low, because a record 12 percent of the 45 million mortgages in the country were delinquent during the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Against that backdrop, even the Making Home Affordable program has been pretty slow out of the gate, said Barry Zigas, housing director for the Consumer Federation of America, the nation’s largest consumer-advocacy group.

“I really haven’t seen much of a result from it yet,” he said. “I do understand that most of the biggest servicers have signed up, but this is still moving forward at a slow pace. They have a lot of applications in the pipeline, but foreclosures are still up.”

‘A number of hurdles’

The new initiative has also encountered some of the same problems as the old ones: homeowners getting the runaround at corporate call centers, confusion about program eligibility, uninformed customer-service reps, and mortgage servicers that won’t help borrowers until they’re behind on their loan payments.

“There are still a number of hurdles to overcome,” said Richard Scaggs, chief executive officer of Consumer Credit Counseling of Central Florida. “Overall, we do have a much-improved program now, and we’re getting much more buy-in from the servicers. But it is all so new, there are servicers out there who are really overwhelmed with it all.”

Richard Burnett can be reached at rburnett@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5256.

Do you qualify?

Having trouble with your mortgage payments? You may be eligible for Making Home Affordable, the federal government’s new loan-modification and refinancing program. Follow these steps to find out:

First, assemble a file of your important papers — mortgage statements, pay stubs, latest income-tax return, other debt balances and bank statements.

Go to the government’s Web site (www.makinghomeaffordable.gov) and click on “eligibility” in the top-left corner. Click on “Refinancing” refinance or “Modification,”loan modification, answer the questions and follow the instructions to see whether you qualify.

Find a housing counselor by calling 1-888-995-4673 or going to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Web site (http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/fc/) and clicking on your state’s name to find local HUD-certified agencies that can help you.

Take good notes when talking to a counselor, loan servicer or lender, especially when talking to someone in a call center. Write down names, dates, times, comments, promises and denials. Get a case number from everyone. Keep a journal and document everything.

Beware of counseling services that charge upfront fees. Everything you need can be obtained for free of charge with the aid of a HUD-certified counselor. Call several agencies and ask questions — shop around for the right counselor.

What are tax certificates?

In Florida, taxes become due November 1, and become delinquent if not paid by April 1 of the following year. The tax collector in every Florida county then prepares a list of the properties with delinquent taxes and sends out notices to all property owners with unpaid property taxes stating that a tax certificate will be auctioned on or before June1 if the taxes are not paid.

The tax certificate’s face amount consists of the sum of the following: delinquent real estate tax (unpaid amount), interest (1.5% for each of the months of April and May on the delinquent amount), Tax Collector’s commission (5% on the delinquent amount), and the newspaper’s advertising charge (& sale costs or other costs).

Tax certificates are a first lien against property which means there are very few other claims against a property which would be paid before the tax certificate lien. It even supersedes some IRS liens.

The Auction

The property taxes become delinquent on April 1. On or before June 1 the Tax Collector must start the tax certificate auction (Note: tax certificates and the auction of them is governed by Chapter 197 of the Florida Statutes. All requirements mentioned in this document come from Chapter 197 without the legalese).

To make a simplified analogy, think of the purchase of a tax certificate as a loan to the property owner. In return, the investor receives interest on the money loaned.

In Florida, the tax certificate conveys no property rights. It is simply a “loan” carrying an interest rate.

The certificates are advertised once a week for three consecutive weeks before the auction.

The interest on a certificate ranges from 0 to 18%. Bids are entered with the certificate going to the bidder willing to take the lowest interest rate. Simple interest accrues on a monthly basis. If the certificate carries an interest rate of 12%, then interest will accrue at 1% every month until the certificate is redeemed. Once a certificate is issued, providing the redemption of the certificate is after May 31, the least an investor will receive in interest is 5% (Florida Statutes) except for a bid of 0%. A certificate won with a 0% bid earns no interest. The investor is guaranteed 5% over the life of the certificate IF THE CERTIFICATE IS REDEEMED. Certificates are good for 7 years from the date of issuance. At the end of 7 years, the certificate is retired (no longer exists). If the certificate is not sold to an individual, a certificate will be issued to the county bearing an interest rate of 18%, and may be purchased by visiting the tax collector’s office. Most counties today do not issue actual certificates anymore. The certificate is kept as an electronic file at the Tax Collector’s office