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Mary Brennan, Director of Tax Abatement and Tax Exemption Programs at HPD, 100 Gold Street, Rm. 9164. Telephone: 566-6902. FAIRER BORROWING PROCESSPerhaps the most hopeful progress in the last few years has been an effort to make the borrowing process fairer for women, minorities and people who want to buy a house in a neighborhood that most banks want to shun. If patterns of fairness still seem uneven, it is, at least possible to see a few improvements. Women%u2019s income, for example, must now be treated equally with a man's in determining amounts for a mortgage. Questions about whether a wife will be leaving her job in order to have children are now out of order under federal and state laws.STATE REVIEW BOARDIn the case of an applicant who is turned down by a savings bank for a mortgage, there is an appeal process now through a Mortgage Review Board. This organization, whose members include most of the savings banks in the state, will review a letter of declination from a bank if the applicant forwards it promptly to the Board.A review process takes four to eight weeks, and in about half the cases so far, a mortgage has ultimately been granted. For information, write to the Mortgage Review Board, Room 1000, 200 Park Ave., New York. N.Y. 10017 Phone: 212-598-9900.The mortgage market changes constantly, and housing prices obviously do too. Although a few efforts have been made to make it easier to rescue a house in a struggling neighborhood, or to buy property on a limited income, themortgage business is becoming like everything else %u2014financing costs will depend on what the market will bear. Interest is tax deductible, though, and the payments toward equity are a sort of savings account-%u2014and something that rises in value to compensate for inflation. Many people it seems continue to spend a lot for housing, and, despite all the limitation, the banks are still finding a good deal of business in helping them do it.Citibank, one of the boldest commercial banks in the mortgage field in our part of town these days,has just announced an expansion of its unique Slretch Mortgage Program. This plan, which was started two years ago in a few brownstone neighborhoods, is now being extended to all of Brooklyn.A %u201c stretch%u201d mortgage stretches out the process of paying for a house by allowing a 10 per cent downpayment. The lowest downpayment in any ordinary mortgage program usually is 20 per cent and many banks go higher than that. If you want a house now, and your capital isn%u2019t quite up to your dreams, a stretch mortgage can help. The cost, however, by the way, is high*,Citibank is a nationally chartered commercial bank and can charge more interest than statechartered banks like savingsThree WaysTo FinanceA I I * . n nuust?BY LIBBY HAYMANExperiences in getting mortgages are as different as the brownstones they finance. While many lucky homeowners havebanks so the rate will be 11 Vi per cent plus an extra charge for Personal Mortgage Insurance (PM1), required by law for anymortgage providing 90 per cent of the purchase price. On the mortgage for a $60,000 house, the PMI adds $372.60 at closing time, covering the first 14 months of the insurance. After that it costs $10.80 a month until ten years are over, then $5.80 a month until the magic day when the owner has achieved 25 per cent equity on his properly.Processing for the %u201c stretch%u201d is otherwise similar to an ordinary mortgage. A quarter per cent origination fee covers extra processing and the time is about a month for application to letter of commitment.In making the announcement, expanding the Stretch Program last week Richard Perry, Vice President and Regional Businessobtained standard mortgage loans from either commercial or savings banks, others have used different approaches. Here are some successful ones:One family, buying a small house in mediocre condition in a fringe neighborhood five years ago, was frightened at the entire mortgage process, and their broker wasn't too confident about their chances. Hie broker pointed out that the owner who was selling the houseManager for Citibank in Brooklyn and Staten Island said that the program has had a response %u201c far greater than our expectations%u201d , and that it is a way to help %u201c stop the flight of homeowners from Brooklyn.%u201dWith a $155,000 lid, the program can finance a big part of some of the very expensive houses now being sold. Statistically, the borrowers under the program arc younger and have smaller incomes than other mortgage borrowers. The program has lent $24 million in its two years.Cit ibank has also just created a service packet for mortgage seekers called %u201cThe Complete Citibank Home Buyer%u2019s Kit.\contains a booklet about the steps involved in buying a house and, ,not surprisingly, a mortgage application. Pick it up at any C itib a n k Bran ch . - - L. H .was an absentee, eager to sell the house but not needing the whole sum in cash. The broker, not the buyers, persuaded the seller to give a purchase money mortgage at the legal interest rate.itie down payment agreed on was large, nearly 40 percent, but the processing was simple and inexpensive. The seller has a handly monthly income, and the buyers still have the option of refinancing when and if they wish.A case of successful refinancing was carried out by a Park Slope couple who had bought their house ten years ago. The increase in the value of the house was, of course, stupendous, and the mortgage had shrunk to about $5,000. The owners had found a country house, and the thought of the relatively inexpensive money a new mortgage might give them seemed promising.CASH IN HANDAlthough a number of banks are only willing to refinance for home improvement, others will give cash in hand, and the couple found two right away. One, the Greater New York, charged an interest rate higher than the then standard 9-3/4 percent. The reason for this, it turns out, is that the Greater keeps its own money for purchase mortgages and does refinancing through FHA, a more expensive loan. But the Williamsburgh, where the original mortgage on the house was held, did the job for 9-3/4 percent. Costs and procedures were equivalent to a new mortgage, and it took two months while the summer passed without the country house, but the money was finally presented. Williamsburgh was willing to go to 75 percent of the house value. TheContinued on P. 37With Some Cash Citibank StretchesMortgages For High Priced HomesOctober 11,1979, The PHOENIX, Page 9