FHA 203K Loans for Rehabilitation

Posted on November 11, 2009 by admin 
Filed under FHA news, Published Articles · Tagged:

In 2009, FHA home loans became the new trend for borrowers who had the income and job stability. FHA loans have become a good financing choice, at least for people who planned on staying in their homes long term. The FHA 203k also enables borrowers to finance the costs of your home remodeling in your loan.

With FHA 203k loans, borrowers could purchase or refinance a home that needs improvements and include all the modification and construction costs in the loan. FHA loans also encouraged borrowers to make their home more energy efficient. The FHA enabled people to finance energy efficient upgrades into their home refinance loan.  If you need more HUD advice for home buying with little or no credit, take a look at FHA mortgage refinance. Read the original FHA loan article written by Bryan Dornan.

FHA Loans and the Tax Credit for First Time Home Buyers

Posted on November 9, 2009 by admin 
Filed under FHA First Time Home-Buyers, FHA Mortgagee Letters, FHA news · Tagged:

FHA lenders have been hoping the tax credit for first time home buyers would get extended.  President Obama signed HR 3548, the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009, legislation which should help FHA loan applicants, but legislation which is likely to be re-done early next year.  The first-time homebuyer tax credit is for first-time purchasers could get as much as $8,000 in tax reductions if only they would please, please buy a home and buy one before December 1st. For homebuyers in 15 states, this was the last down-payment assistance program at least for home buyers in 15 states because the tax credit is considered a down-payment with FHA mortgage loans.

With December 1st soon upon us, the government responded in two ways it extended the deadline until April 30th AND it improved the benefit. What is did not do was increase the first-time write off to $15,000 from $8,000 as some in the real estate industry wanted.  The first-time homebuyer credit is no longer just for first-time homebuyers. The new FHA mortgage program has been expanded to include many current homeowners as well.

The FHA loan program for current homeowners has expanded guidelines: If you have owned a home for five consecutive years out of the last eight and purchase a new principal residence between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010, you can get a tax credit of up to $6,500.  One of the qualification factors under the 2009 credit was that you could not have an income of more than $75,000 if single or $150,000 if married. The new rule increases the income limits to $125,000 for singles and $225,000 for joint filers to get the full write-off.

Green Lending with Energy Efficient FHA Mortgage Loans

Posted on October 14, 2009 by admin 
Filed under FHA news, Green Lending · Tagged:

FHA has come out with several energy efficient home loans so homeowners can update their home with solar and energy efficient products that conserve energy and water.  Why wouldn’t you want to save money every month with lower gas and electric bills?  Solar energy can cut your bill and save you hundreds of dollars each month.  Read the original article > Green Lending

FHA Mortgage Success with Making Home Affordable

The past week we saw the State of California pass a law that banned advance fees for loan modification companies with the announcement that more than 500,000 FHA loan modifications in progress under the Making Home Affordable program. These are better results for FHA that saw very few homeowners receive mortgage relief with the Hope for Homeowners and FHA Secure refinance products. What we had before 949 applications under the Hope for Homeowners Program and only 1 mortgage approval. The FHA Secure program allowed only 3,794 delinquent borrowers who had conforming mortgages to refinance with FHA mortgage lending in 2008.

In contrast, the Obama Administration reports that 2,484,783 borrowers have sought information under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) through the end of September. Of this number, 757,955 were offered three-month trial modification and 487,081 loan modification agreements have begun. If the borrower makes three lower payments during the trial period then the loan is permanently changed to that lower rate and hopefully the home is saved from foreclosure.

 

New FHA Guidelines for Condos

Posted on October 13, 2009 by admin 
Filed under FHA Mortgagee Letters, FHA news, Mortgage News · Tagged:

Under revised guidelines set to go into effect November 2, 2009, the Federal Housing Administration is implementing a new stricter approval process for condominiums to be eligible for FHA home financing. Similar in some respects to the new Fannie Mae regulations issued earlier in the year, the FHA guidelines will surely slow down condominium mortgage financing, and negatively impact first time home buyers for condominium units.

The FHA mortgage loan program designed to help more people finance homes, and more borrowers will qualify with FHA financing than with conventional financing. It is a low down payment (3.5% down) program and the credit standards are much looser. The mortgage rates are typically better, as well.

New Project Eligibility Guidelines

All condominiums (consisting of 2 or more units) must meet the following requirements:

• At least 50% of the units of a project must be owner-occupied or sold.

• Projects must be covered by hazard and liability insurance and, when applicable, flood insurance.

• No more than 15% of units can be in arrears of their condominium fees.

• No more than 25% of the property’s total floor area in a project can be used for commercial purposes.

A current reserve study must be performed to assure that adequate funds are available for the funding of capital expenditures and maintenance. The regulations don’t define what is “adequate” but guidance may be found in the new Fannie Mae guidelines which mandate at least 10% of annual operating budget in reserves.

• No more than 10% of the units may be owned by one investor.

• Rights of first refusal are permitted unless they violate discriminatory conduct under the Fair Housing Act.

• An affirmative action-type housing plan is required for both new construction and conversions.

• Previously certified projects must re-apply every 2 years.

• The “spot approval” process is eliminated in favor of a more comprehensive review process.

The net effect of these new guidelines, combined with the recent Fannie Mae guidelines, is that it will be much tougher to obtain condominium financing as many projects will not be able to pass muster. Condominium associations, trustees, managers, lenders and buyers need to prepare and do a lot more work to approve condominium loans.

New FHA Condo Guidelines Could Limit Mortgage Refinancing

Posted on September 9, 2009 by admin 
Filed under FHA FAQ, FHA Mortgagee Letters, FHA news · Tagged:

In a June letter to FHA lenders from HUD, the FHA mortgage guideline revisions for condominiums and town homes were announced and documented. Unfortunately for condo owners, the guidelines have tightened for FHA lending and qualifying for mortgage refinancing may become more difficult than in previous years.

Project approval is no longer required for FHA.  FHA streamline refinance loans for HUD Real Estate Owned (REO) sales. If you presently have a FHA mortgage and want a streamline refinance then you are blessed with an easier path for lowering your mortgage rate.  Currently having a FHA loan is a HUD requirement for FHA streamline refinancing.

Ineligible properties include condominium (“condotels”), timeshares or segmented ownership projects, houseboat projects, multi-dwelling unit condominiums [i.e. more than one dwelling per condominium unit], and all projects not deemed to be used primarily as residential.

Here are some additional standards for condo properties, as explained by HUD:

o    At least 50% of the units of a project must be owner-occupied or sold to owners who intend to occupy the units. For proposed, under construction or projects still in their initial marketing phase, FHA will allow a minimum owner occupancy amount equal to 50% of the number of presold units (the minimum presales requirement of 50% still applies).

o    No more than 15% of the total units can be in arrears (more than 30 days past due) of their condominium association fee payment.

o    Projects consisting of three or less units will have no more than one unit encumbered with FHA insurance.

o    Projects consisting of four or more units will have no more than 30% of the total units encumbered with FHA insurance.

FHA Loan Modification Guidelines

Check out the latest FHA mortgage guidelines and FHA requirements for their new loan modification efforts for conventional home loans. FHASecure was the first FHA home loan program created to provide mortgage relief for delinquent homeowner who were not able to qualify for a conforming mortgage refinance loan. 

o    FHA announced their new mortgage modification plans to aid distressed FHA borrowers.

o    The FHA home loan is refinanced and 30% of the FHA loan is placed into an interest-free second mortgage that must be paid back when the property is sold or refinanced.

o    Homeowners must qualify with ratios of 31/55. The 1st ratio says that up to 31% of the individual’s monthly income can be used for housing costs and that 55% can be used for housing costs plus other monthly debts.

o    The borrowers must be able to document a hardship (ie. an income change, loss of employment etc.) and HUD must be considered as a long term hardship.   

Read the original article online > FHA Loan Modification Program.

FHA Mortgage Loans Introduced to Stimulate Markets as Housing Recovery Faces Challenges

A recent rise in mortgage rates and rising foreclosures and job losses are just a few of the challenges standing in the way of a lasting recovery, economists say. New FHA loan programs have helped struggling homeowners qualify for mortgage refinancing.  In addition FHA announced new financing incentive for 1st time homebuyers with attractive incentives to finance a new home.  HUD created these new FHA mortgage lending programs in an effort to stimulate the real estate market that has been sluggish nationwide for several years.  With the economy ailing, affordability remains the primary concerns for most Americans considering financing a home.

The US residential real estate market is caught in the worst correction in decades with few reasons to be optimistic as the economy worsens, according to a key housing report released Monday.   “Despite unprecedented federal efforts to stimulate the economy and help homeowners make current mortgage payments, house prices continued to fall and home foreclosures continued to mount in most areas through the 1st quarter of 2009,” according to the executive summary of the State of the Nation’s Housing annual report released by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.   “While new and existing home sales and single-family starts have shown some signs of stabilizing, ongoing job losses, house price deflation and tighter mortgage underwriting and credit are placing any recovery at risk,” the report said.

“Although there are some signs of improvement or at least steadiness in new construction and sales, housing starts stand near 60-plus year lows, and any life in home sales is coming from distressed foreclosure sales, temporary 1st -time buyer tax credits and low mortgage interest rates for purchase and refinance that moved higher in recent weeks,” said Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard’s Joint Center, in a press release.  “The best that can be said of the market is that house price corrections and steep cuts in housing production are creating the conditions that will lead to an eventual recovery,” added Eric Belsky, executive director of the Joint Center.  “For now, markets remain under considerable stress,” Belsky said.

The bleak study coincided with a separate report from the World Bank warning of more damage in the global economy.   This week, investors will be focusing on housing data and any commentary the Federal Reserve offers on the economy.  “On the economic front, new and existing home sales should show improvement but from very low levels,” said David Kelly, chief market strategist at JPMorgan Funds. “The recent back-up in FHA mortgage rates, although unwelcome, really should not be enough to prevent pent-up demand and still very good affordability from triggering a housing rebound.”   Resource: John Spence, Jeff Moran

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