The Department of Housing and Urban Development is in the process of modifying the single-family Upfront and Periodic mortgage insurance premium (MIP) collection processes. This modification is in response to the Department of the Treasury's mandate for all agencies to switch from their current lockbox services to Treasury's Pay.gov collection service. After September 30, 2007, all single-family MIP payments currently collected through the two payment service providers, Mellon Bank and PNC Bank, will be collected directly by HUD and processed using Treasury's Pay.gov system. Pilot testing for the Pay.gov process will start in mid June 2007 for Upfront MIP and mid July 2007 for Periodic MIP. All lenders are encouraged to take steps to complete their initial bank account setup by July 2007 and to switch to the Pay.gov process before the end of September 2007. Detailed information for the new process can be found on the Internet at: http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/comp/premiums/sfpaygov.cfm

Columbus Board of Realtors 2006 President, Chris Reese stands with Mayor Michael Coleman and 2006 President of the Columbus Mortgage Bankers Association, Bob Niemi, to display the City Council Proclamation for "Homeownership Day" in Columbus.