Technology TransactionsHUD Builds User-Friendly Web Site
HUD has a new secretary, Mel Martinez, and if changes on the Department"s web site are any indication of his approach to running the big federal institution, we may like this guy. What"s more, we may actually be able to find information on the site.
In April, 1999, HUD was directed to change its web offerings by then-Secretary Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo said site materials should be arranged by topic so that material would be "organizational neutral." The theory was that the site should reflect the concept of "one HUD," as though anyone would confuse it with some other HUD.
The result of Cuomo"s order was that there were suddenly huge numbers of Cuomo quotes, Cuomo photos, and Cuomo news releases plastered everywhere on the site. One report found that of approximately 600 HUD news releases issued over a 15-month period, 450 had the "Cuomo" name embossed in the headline. Even now, the HUD search engine can unearth more than 3,200 Cuomo sightings on the Department"s Internet site.
While the HUD site became a pharaoh-like shrine to its former secretary, it also became virtually useless as a source of government information. If you wanted to know more about something basic at HUD like FHA loans, good luck, Lewis & Clark could not have found the right web page.
So now we have the Martinez era and guess what? There"s no photo of Mel on the home page. There"s a link regarding his recent confirmation, but it"s down the page and barely visible. The betting here is that it will soon disappear.
It"s hard to know what the future will bring at HUD (or anywhere else), but Martinez is off to a good start. In essence, the HUD site is being re-designed to be more user-friendly, more informational, and less politicized. If such good work continues, the site is likely to wind up like the VA website, a model of clarity for both government and non-government web presentations.
More importantly, if the HUD website is a measure of what Martinez will do as secretary, then perhaps we can get to more serious matters, including HUD"s hostility during the past few years toward independent community groups such as the Nehemiah program, its costly FHA appraiser testing program, and its misleading and unfair ads which suggest that professional home inspections are not required for FHA homes.
As a public service, here are the new links for major HUD pages of interest to consumers, brokers, and lenders.
*100 Questions & Answers Abount Buying A New Home
*FHA ARMs
*FHA Mortgage Assistance for Low- and Medium-Income Borrowers
*FHA Energy Efficient Mortgages
*FHA Graduated Payment Mortgages
*FHA Growing Equity Mortgages (GEMs)
*FHA Home Page
*FHA Insurance for 1-4 Family Homes
*FHA Loans for Manufactured Housing
*FHA Maximum Loan Amounts By Community
*FHA Mortgage Assistance for Disaster Victims
*FHA Mortgage Counseling Assistance Program
*FHA Mortgagee Letters For Lenders
*FHA Mortgages for Members of the Armed Services and NOAA
*FHA Mortgage Insurance Refunds
*FHA 203K Rehab Mortgages
*How To Buy HUD Foreclosures
*HUDCLIPS -- Technical Information
*Reverse Mortgages
*Title 1 Home Improvement Loans
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