Latest news with #Iorio
Epoch Times
30-04-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Homebuilders Court First-Time Buyers With Innovative Financing as Costs Rise
Prospective first-time and Gen-Z homebuyers are increasingly nervous about the economic landscape, seeing high interest rates and home prices in many urban markets topping the $1 million mark. During recent conference calls with Wall Street analysts, top executives for D.R. Horton and PulteGroup said the industry is increasingly collaborating with mortgage companies and local banks to develop innovative financing solutions and incentives to get first-time buyers off the sidelines. At D.R. Horton, CEO Paul Romanowski said 55–56 percent of new home deliveries from the nation's largest homebuilder have been to first-time buyers. Meanwhile, 70 percent of deliveries were at $400,000 or less, 'which for us is maintaining a focus on affordability and a payment that works for people in their monthly budget.' 'I think we have made adjustments as the market has shifted over the last 12–18 months and feel comfortable with our trajectory and the product offering that we have,' Romanowski said. The Dallas-based homebuilder In Atlanta, PulteGroup has also developed and implemented various tools to assist first-time homebuyers navigating their personal homeownership challenges. With growing concerns about the potential for a slowing economy, PulteGroup is offering new product designs, more efficient floor plans, and meaningful financial incentives that move the needle. Related Stories 4/25/2025 4/24/2025 Such offerings include new financing vehicles such as forward commitments, where PulteGroup's local builders can offer a below-market interest rate on a 30-year mortgage for qualified homebuyers. 'We leaned into incentives a little more heavily in the first quarter as we executed on our plan to reduce excess spec inventory,' said CEO Ryan Marshall, noting that the Atlanta-based homebuilder ended the first quarter with 16,548 new homes in According to Houston banker Mike Iorio, interest-rate buy-down programs and forward commitments allow homebuilders to partner with banks or mortgage companies and commit to purchasing a pool of loan funds at a reduced rate over a specific period. This enables builders to lock in an interest rate for future home closings and offer buyers below-market rates without lowering the sale price, he said. At Cornerstone, Iorio was recently appointed senior vice president of strategic partnerships to spearhead the expansion of the company's homebuilder program nationwide. He said the fast-growing Texas community bank has seen the number of forward commitments double in 2024 to more than $2.4 billion as interest rates for a 30-year mortgage have climbed to nearly 7 percent nationally. 'It's not free, and it's not cheap,' said Iorio. 'But what it does is it allows (builders) to advertise in their communities, and they can do it either on a specific home or they can do it for an entire community.' In northeast Arkansas, one of the most unique homebuying programs in the country is the 'Work Here. Live Here.' (WHLH) Once one of the nation's poorest counties with one of the highest U.S. jobless rates at 16 percent during the Great Recession, the Delta region is now anchored by major steel producers that have reshaped the local economy, provided thousands of high-paying jobs, and attracted billions in capital investment. For example, Pittsburgh-based steel conglomerate U.S. Steel is on track to start up full production at its $3 billion, 6.3 million-ton 'Big River 2' mega mill on the Mississippi River in the second half of this year. Nucor Steel, the nation's largest steel producer, also operates a 1,000-employee specialty cold mill and another 800-employee joint venture manufacturing facility with Japan's Yamato Steel in the county. Randy Scott, CEO of Farmer's Trust Bank, said the community began brainstorming over a decade ago on ways the county could tackle the region's persistently high unemployment and negative population growth. As the steel industry drew workers around for entry-level jobs up to $100,000 annually, WHLH was founded to address the need for more and better housing. 'We had people driving to work every day from as far as the foothills of Missouri and from several other states just so they could get a job at one of the mills,' Scott told the Epoch Times, adding the nonprofit foundation celebrated its 100th new home in 2024. Funded by the participating employers, the program offers employees up to $50,000 toward the cost of a new home and up to $25,000 toward an existing home. Since its inception, WHLH initiative has generated $37.4 million in new home value and facilitated 146 home purchases. 'And our unemployment rate is now down to 4 percent,' Scott said. Nationally, mortgage lender Michael Brennan and real estate professional Jennifer Beeston, the executive vice president of in Coral Springs, Florida, agreed that education is the most crucial asset for first-time homebuyers, especially millennials and Gen Z homebuyers. According to a recent Zillow As president of Melville, New York-based Nationwide Mortgage Bankers (NMB), Brennan oversees sales and operations for the 500-employee company licensed in 47 states. He told The Epoch Times that affordability is the biggest challenge for buyers entering a volatile housing market. 'The most important thing anyone can offer is education,' he said, noting new programs such as 40-year mortgages are being introduced every day to lure reluctant buyers into the market. Beeston, who runs a YouTube In the current market, Beeston noted the disparity in housing prices across the United States, with affordable markets such as Texas and Arkansas contrasting with high-end cities like Miami Beach, emphasizing the role of down payment assistance programs and the impact of inventory on affordability. 'It doesn't matter how creative I get about financing. You can't buy a million-dollar house with a $60,000 a year salary,' she told The Epoch Times. 'So those are bigger issues that need to be resolved. Thankfully, the bulk of America is not that dark.'
Voice of America
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Voice of America
Growing space cooperation between Pakistan, China presents risks and opportunities, experts say
China is ramping up cooperation with Pakistan in space exploration, but experts say Islamabad must develop its own strengths if it aims to benefit from Beijing. Pakistan's Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, or SUPARCO, and China Manned Space Agency, or CMSA, announced Friday they will train Pakistan's first astronaut for a mission aboard Chinese space station Tiangong. The agreement comes just weeks after the two sides announced China's Chang'e-8 moon lander mission in 2028 will carry a Pakistani rover. Last year, China put Pakistan into the moon's orbit taking the first Pakistani lunar satellite ICUBE-Q, aboard its historic Chiang'e 6 mission, designed to retrieve samples from the little explored far side of the moon. Weeks later, Beijing put another Pakistani communication satellite into orbit. Picking Pakistan The latest agreement makes Pakistan the first country with an astronaut to work at Tiangong. Experts say picking Pakistan as the first guest for China's space station is not surprising as Islamabad hosts the flagship project of China's global Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. The multibillion-dollar program includes a plethora of investment projects aimed at extending Beijing's influence, especially in the developing world. 'In this kind of increased polarization of interest in the world, China, both politically and also from the technological point of view, is trying to be the front-runner of, we can say, the Global South,' said Carlo Iorio, director of the Center for Research and Engineering in Space Technology at the Free University of Brussels. 'So, it's quite straightforward to think that one of the possible first candidates to be granted to use the Chinese Space Station could have been Pakistani astronauts or an astronaut,' Iorio told VOA. Last October, China announced a 25-year plan outlining its ambitious vision for space exploration. It includes Beijing's goals of searching for extraterrestrial life, exploring Mars, Venus, and Jupiter, sending space crews to the moon and building an international lunar research station. 'Pakistan's participation in the China Space Station program reflects the deep-rooted ties between the two countries,' said Lin Xiqiang, director general of CMSA, according to the Pakistani statement. Lin was quoted as saying Pakistan's inclusion 'will contribute to mutual knowledge-sharing and the broader vision of peaceful space exploration for the benefit of humanity.' Equal footing Collaboration with China opens access to a treasure trove of technical knowledge and expertise for Pakistan as Beijing has managed the world's first soft landing and roving on the far side of the moon and landed a rover on Mars. 'They have capabilities to indigenously design and develop satellites and launches for all types of applications,' said Amer Gilani, secretary of the Pakistan Human Spaceflight Cooperation at SUPARCO about China's capabilities. 'Pakistan wants to achieve self-reliance in design and development of satellites for remote sensing, communication, deep space exploration, lunar missions,' Gilani told VOA in written comments. 'With collaboration with China our space ambitions can progress much better.' Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hailed the latest space collaboration as 'a defining moment in the nation's space journey,' but experts say the nuclear-armed country will benefit from the collaboration only if it becomes an equal partner. 'What I want to see is cooperation on equal footing,' said Yarjan Abdul Samad, assistant professor of aerospace engineering at Khalifa University in UAE. Samad, who is also affiliated with the University of Cambridge, said that while Pakistan may not be able to contribute equally now, it should aim to do so in the near future. 'If you go on these projects and you are just on the receiving end and you get services, what you asked for, then your technological development is very limited,' Samad told VOA. Chinese edge The International Space Station, or ISS, and China's Tiangong are currently the only two space stations orbiting Earth. Managed by a partnership among 15 countries, the ISS is set to be retired in 2030. Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX and special advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, recently called for deorbiting the ISS soon in favor of missions to Mars. As the market for commercial space exploration expands, Iorio said, that leaves China's Tiangong as the only official government-based space station for further experiments and other activities for years to come. While this makes collaborating with China attractive for developing countries, Samad said Pakistan should consider more than national pride when putting an astronaut into space. Sending a Pakistani into space will only make sense, Samad said, if they will 'assist in carrying out work which is not possible with unmanned vehicles and which is not possible in ground conditions and which is helping us in finding solutions to technological problems.' SUPARCO has said the mission will involve 'cutting-edge scientific experiments in various fields, including biological and medical sciences, aerospace, applied physics, fluid mechanics, space radiation, ecology, material sciences, microgravity studies, and astronomy.' Despite receiving more than $25 billion in Chinese loans and investments for energy and infrastructure projects as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Pakistan is yet to turn its economy around. Experts largely blame governance issues. Iorio warned that Pakistan must strengthen its technology landscape or risk losing some of its brightest. "Without supporting research in the country, [it] will drain more talent towards foreign nations, including China," the Brussels-based expert said. For now, Pakistanis have an exciting opportunity ahead of them as SUPARCO searches for the country's first astronaut. The criteria? 'Pakistan will select astronauts from Pakistani citizens with background suited for astronauts which could be flying, medical fitness, physical fitness, psychological fitness, research/analytical skills, and high qualifications etc.,' Gilani told VOA. 'Hopefully [we] will be able to get good candidates.'
