Joanne Hardy with Community National Bank in Montpelier is VHFA's top mortgage loan originator in Washington County for 2008.

VHFA's fiscal year ends June 30, so summer is when we announce all our top originators for the previous year. We'll be announcing the rest of our top originators throughout the summer.

Congratulations, Joanne!

Spurred by our publication of "Family Homelessness in Vermont" (388 KB; PDF), the fourth in a series of VHFA issue papers released last week, there have been a number of stories about homelessness in local media.

The Associated Press picked up the story that appeared in The Burlington Free Press, which led to coverage in the Boston Globe and USA Today, among others. (Here's the Brattleboro Reformer's abbreviated version of the story: "Homeless families rise in Vermont".)

Julie Heffernan with National Bank of Middlebury in Middlebury is VHFA's top mortgage loan originator in Addison County for 2008.

VHFA's fiscal year ends June 30, so summer is when we announce all our top originators for the previous year. We'll be announcing the rest of our top originators throughout the summer.

Congratulations, Julie!

A recent study released by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University finds the current housing downturn could be the worst in a generation.

The report shows the number of homeowners paying more than half their income on housing increased from 6.5 million in 2001 to 8.8 million in 2006.