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FHA loan offers Florida homebuyers a low cost way to own a Florida home

January 14th, 2010

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Lowest costing FHA home loan.

Coming soon to FHA-mortgage loans will require Higher FICO scores and more cash at closing. The changes are needed to help keep the agency afloat.

FHA mortgage loans are about to become more expensive and harder to get for Florida FHA loan applicants.

The details will be revealed in late January. But this much already is clear: FHA Mortgage applicants will need higher credit scores and more cash at closing to get the lower interest rates and cheaper insurance of FHA mortgage loans and refinanced loans.

The rules are changing because the Federal Housing Administration is in a financial hole. It’s been paying out more to cover defaulted FHA mortgage loans than it’s taking in from mortgage-insurance premiums. The imbalance has drained agency reserves to 1.5% of the FHA mortgages  it covers — below the 2% level required by law.

To cure the FHA insurance deficit President Barack Obama’s administration has announced it will tighten the FHA Loan requirements, making four changes that will hit consumers making it tougher to qualify:

  • Raising the minimum FICO score you need to qualify.
  • Increasing the cost of FHA mortgage insurance and possibly changing how premiums are collected.
  • Increasing the FHA down payment required for an FHA loan.
  • Decreasing the amount that sellers can pay toward a buyer’s FHA closing costs.

 Why the FHA mortgage insurance exists

The FHA agency was created during the Depression to put builders and contractors back to work, keep the mortgage industry going and help keep homeownership affordable.

FHA mortgage insurance doesn’t make loans; it insures them. Anytime a mortgage applicants has  a down payment smaller than 20%, lenders require mortgage insurance. FHA’s mortgage insurance is low-cost, and the agency will insure borrowers that private industry often won’t touch. Essentially, FHA mortgage insurance lets borrowers — especially first-time homebuyers — get homes with low down payments.  

Other FHA Mortgage loan Advantages Include:

Minimal Down Payment and Closing Costs.

  • Down payment less than 3.5% of Sales Price
  • Gift for down payment and closing costs allowed.
  • No reserves or required.
  • FHA regulated closing costs.
  • Seller can credit up to 6% of sales price towards buyers costs.

Easier Credit Qualifying Guidelines such as:

  • Minimum FICO credit score of 540.
  • FHA will allow a home purchase 2 years after a Bankruptcy.
  • FHA will allow a home purchase  3 years after a Foreclosure

Easier Debt Ratio & Job Requirement Guidelines such as:

  • Higher Debt Ratio’s than other home loan programs.
  • Less than two years on the job is allowed.
  • Self-Employed individuals o.k.

http://www.fhamortgagefhaloan.com/

 The history of the FHA mortgage

When mortgages became hard to get a couple of years ago, the FHA “helped when no one else would, when everyone else buried their head in the sand”It’s fair to say the very survival of the housing sector in 2007-08 is thanks to FHA.”

As the housing bubble expanded, FHA mortgage loans took a back seat to cheap, quick, subprime loans, dropping to about 4% of market share in 2005 through 2007 for new mortgages and refinances combined. But once subprime products disappeared in the housing collapse, the FHA mortgage market share grew, to 21% in September 2009.

Here are the changes being discussed and what they could mean to FHA mortgage applicants:

1. FHA Mortgage insurance premiums

FHA Mortgage applicants pay two kinds of premiums for FHA mortgage insurance: an upfront lump sum that’s due when the loan closes (currently 1.75% and usually rolled into the loan amount and financed) and monthly payments (0.5% or 0.55% of the loan amount, depending on your down payment).

Here’s what you’d pay now in FHA mortgage insurance premiums on a $250,000 loan:

  • $4,375 (1.75%) at closing.
  • $1,250 to $1,375 (0.5 % or 0.55%) a year, broken into monthly installments.

An increase appears certain on at least the monthly charges, based on recent remarks to Congress by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.

There’s also speculation, says Lenders One’s Stern, that the FHA might require the upfront fee to be paid in cash and close off the option of rolling it into the loan.

Stern says that financing option is “one of the primary benefits of FHA.”

The cost to you: Higher mortgage insurance premiums will increase your monthly payments. And if you’re not allowed to finance the upfront insurance premium, you’ll have to produce the entire amount in cash at closing. (Your monthly payments would drop a bit, though, if you couldn’t roll the lump sum into your loan.)

 

2. FHA Down payment

Another big attraction of FHA loans is the low down payment requirement. You can get into an FHA-insured mortgage with as little as 3.5% down — that’s $8,750 on a $250,000 home.

That’s likely to increase, too. The idea would be to raise a borrower’s stake in the investment, reducing the chances you’d default.

The cost to you: Some in Congress want to raise the minimum down payment on an FHA-backed loan to 5% of the purchase price. That means you’d have to come up with $12,500 to buy a $250,000 home — $3,750 more cash than today. (Read “The end of the 0% down payment” and “How to come up with a down payment” to learn how down payments work.)

3. FHA LOW FICO  Scores

During the housing boom you could get an FHA loan with a FICO score below 500. The government has been steadily raising the limit since mortgage lending has contracted.

Today, you need a minimum 600 FICO score to qualify for an FHA-backed loan. (Get a free credit score estimate here.) For many borrowers, that’s not really an issue, because their lenders require even higher scores. But a few lenders resell their loans directly to the FHA, not to loan aggregators or other banks. These lenders, for a price, will lend to borrowers with the FHA minimum FICO score, which means that today it’s still possible to get an FHA-insured loan with a FICO score of 600. That’s about to end.

Donovan told Congress that the administration intends to raise the minimum FHA requirement “for the time being” to weed out risky borrowers. He didn’t say by how much. Speculation ranges from 620 to 640. It’s possible that the new requirements will be multilayered, letting borrowers balance a lower credit score with, say, a bigger down payment.

“Of all these things, that will have the biggest impact, because there are so many borrowers who fall below the 620 score,” says Dale Vermillion, author of “Navigating the Mortgage Maze: The Simple Truth About Financing Your Home.” “Today, a lot of people have had credit issues, and their credit scores have gone down. When you combine the two (insurance and down-payment increases), it’s certainly going to have an impact on purchases.” (If your credit score is low, see “Raise your credit score to 740.”)

Raising FHA’s minimum score changes the playing field, says Stern. While private lenders usually do require higher credit scores, they can drop their limits quickly when lending safety has improved. A higher minimum FHA requirement means lost flexibility for retail lenders and their homebuying customers.

The cost to you: Buyers with FICO scores under the new minimum, be it 620 or 640, will be shut out of loans. The rules probably will become more rigid than they are today.

4. HomeSeller contributions to closing costs

Sellers sometimes agree to help pay a buyer’s closing costs. It’s a way to help a cash-poor buyer make a purchase. Currently, the FHA lets sellers contribute as much as 6% of the house price. The administration is considering reducing that to 3%.

“Three percent is what conventional loans allow, industrywide,” says Chad Bergman, a mortgage banker with Frost Mortgage in Littleton, Colo.

 The history of the FHA

The cost to you: Probably nothing. In practice, a reduction to 3% probably won’t matter to most FHA buyers, at least today, Bergman says. Closing costs are based in part on loan amounts and interest rates, and they were considerably higher several years ago, when home prices and interest rates were higher. Today, closing costs average just $2,732 nationally on a $200,000 loan (they vary from state to state), according to a study by Bankrate.com.

If you were buying a home for $210,000, borrowing $200,000 and your closing costs were $4,000, currently the seller could pay up to $12,600 (6% of the home’s price) toward your closing costs — more than enough to cover the whole bill. If the seller’s allowed “concession,” as it’s called, dropped to 3%, your seller could pitch in up to $6,300 — still plenty.

 

‘Still the best mortgage for Florida homebuyers out there’

Taken together, the upcoming changes will make buying a Florida home harder for individual consumers, no question about it. And the FHA administration says it intends to back out of its expanded role once FHA mortgage lenders start making more loans again.

But, FHA still has the lowest down payment in the industry, still has unbelievably low interest rates and still is doing fixed-rate 30-year amortization mortgages. It’s still the best mortgage loan out there.

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Reverse Mortgage Disadvantages

January 12th, 2010

Finding lenders online who will tell you the many advantages of a Reverse Mortgage is easy. But what are the potential disadvantages?

A Reverse Mortgage can provide emergency funds when you need it, but make sure to do your homework before applying for a one.  While there are literally hundreds of reverse mortgage websites outlining the many advantages of a reverse, it is important that seniors are just as aware of some potential disadvantages.

If your income from retirement no longer covers your expenses, current mortgage payment or you’d simply like to secure your retirement years a bit more, you can use the equity in your home to apply for a reverse mortgage if you meet the following criteria.

The youngest borrower must be age 62 or older, live in the home and either own your home outright or have a low enough mortgage balance that can be paid off at closing with proceeds from the reverse mortgage.

Also, one must receive consumer protection information from a HUD approved counselor before obtaining the loan.

What are the Disadvantages of a Reverse Mortgage?

Closing costs are substantial. While the fees are similar to a traditional FHA mortgages, Reverse mortgage fees include mandatory FHA insurance of 2% of your home’s value plus origination fees that range between $2,500 and $6,000. Fees are most often rolled into the loan and not paid upfront. Because HUD is the program administrator, all fees are fixed.

Unfortunately, you may be approached by financial advisors who want to charge you for advice about reverse mortgages or sell you a reverse mortgage. Most of the information you need about reverse mortgages can be found online from HUD. Do not apply for a reverse mortgage from any company that is not approved by HUD.

It’s important to calculate the cost of a reverse mortgage against what you would gain, because once you enter a reverse mortgage agreement, the lender holds title to your home.

Get sound advice. Discuss your reverse mortgage plans with legal and financial advisors, and trusted  family members, before making a decision. If possible, only work with a large reputable bank that will meet with you and family members face to face.

Because home ownership is often a person’s most valuable asset and since your equity is now depreciating, obtaining a reverse mortgage is akin to spending money you’d expect to leave to your heirs.

Be sure that the older homeowner is thinking clearly when making this decision (no dementia or symptoms of Alzheimer’s) because having a sudden influx of cash can be a heady experience and it would be a shame to waste it or become the victim of a scam.  BEWARE of any lender or adviser that suggests an annuity in any way!

Although Social Security and Medicare are not affected, Medicaid and other need based gov’t assistance may be affected if too much funds are withdrawn and not spent in any one month.

Since your equity is declining, obtaining a reverse mortgage may prove to be a hindrance to moving to a new home in the future.

If you are considering a reverse mortgage, it’s important to get as much information as you can, and to consider all of your options. There’s a wealth of free information to help you decide.

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FHA Loan Requirements About to Get Tighter

December 14th, 2009

FHA Loan Requirements About to Get Tighter

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) isn’t broke, but its monetary reserves aren’t quite where they’re supposed to be either.

FHA’s capital reserves are supposed to be at least 2 percent of outstanding mortgage loans. According to the actuarial review for fiscal year 2009, the reserves are a mere 0.5 percent. By the time you read this, FHA’s capital reserve requirements might have disappeared entirely, thanks to the increasing number of FHA foreclosures and banks going south.

All FHA mortgage applicants pay a mortgage insurance premium. These FHA insurance premiums go into the FHA’s capital reserves fund and are used to pay for loans that are foreclosed upon. As FHA home loans have become more and more popular since the subprime crash, and  unemployment numbers have  skyrocketed, more of these FHA home  loans have gone bad, requiring more payments from the capital reserves.

 Other FHA loan Advantages Include:

Minimal Down Payment and Closing Costs.

  • Down payment less than 3.5% of Sales Price
  • Gift for down payment and closing costs allowed.
  • No reserves or required.
  • FHA regulated closing costs.
  • Seller can credit up to 6% of sales price towards buyers costs.

Easier Credit Qualifying Guidelines such as:

  • Minimum FICO credit score of 540.
  • FHA will allow a home purchase 2 years after a Bankruptcy.
  • FHA will allow a home purchase  3 years after a Foreclosure

Easier Debt Ratio & Job Requirement Guidelines such as:

  • Higher Debt Ratio’s than other home loan programs.
  • Less than two years on the job is allowed.
  • Self-Employed individuals o.k.

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Unlike the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which recently proposed that banks pay three years of insurance premiums at once in order to replenish the FDIC’s reserves, FHA can’t require current FHA Mortgage borrowers to pay more. But it can change the rules going forward that will make it more difficult to qualify for an FHA insured home loan.

According to a senior officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), conversations are ongoing to determine what will make the most sense for and prolong the stability of the FHA Mortgage program..

“Nothing will be taken off table,” the official said. “Everything needs to be assessed through the lens of the FHA core mission as well as the broad economic policies of the Administration with regard to stabilizing  the housing market.”

There are at least six different ways FHA/HUD is looking at stabilizing FHA:

1. Increasing the minimum required down payment. FHA is looking at whether increasing the required minimum down payment from 3.5 percent to 5 percent (or more) will help stabilize defaults. If FHA mortgage applicants have more “skin in the game,” FHA officials wonder, will they be less likely to default on their FHA mortgage loans?

2. Changing the FHA mortgage insurance premiums. HUD officials are considering whether changing the way FHA mortgage insurance premiums are structured will keep more FHA Mortgage applicants from becoming delinquent. Should there be an extra fee up front? Should the FHA insurance premiums amount paid over time change for maximum stabilization? (FHA mortgage applicants  currently pay an upfront fee and a monthly charge for mortgage insurance.)

3. Raising the minimum credit score required for an FHA mortgage loan. While credit scores have been lousy at predicting what happens to people with good credit who lose their jobs, they have been more accurate in identifying risky behavior. At the height of the housing boom, FHA mortgage loans  approved FHA mortgage applicants with credit scores below 500. Discussions underway wonder whether the minimum acceptable credit score should be 620 or higher.

4. Dialing back how much money sellers can give FHA buyers. Right now under FHA loan guidelines the  sellers can give buyers up to 6 percent to help cover closing costs and fees. Experts recommend reducing that to 3 percent.

5. Requiring FHA mortgage lenders to have more cash on hand. Like borrowers, FHA lenders need to have more “skin in the game.” Right now, FHA lenders need only have $250,000 in cash to cover fraud-related loan originations, but FHA loan officials want to see that amount rise to $2.5 million. That will reduce the number of FHA Mortgagee lenders that can offer FHA loans, and hopefully cut down on mortgage fraud.

6. Eliminating abusive FHA lenders. HUD is asking Congress for more power to prevent abusive lenders from making FHA loans. According to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan’s testimony before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, FHA mortgage lenders will be required to “indemnify the FHA fund for their own failures to meet FHA requirements” and will be held accountable nationally for any improper activities. Donovan said that HUD “will also develop a FHA mortgage Lender Scorecard that will summarize the performance of lenders who do business with the FHA. This scorecard will be posted on (the department’s) Web site to ensure transparency and accountability for FHA lenders, borrowers and the market.”

FHA officials say the quality of the FHA mortgage portfolio has improved over the course of 2009. The typical FHA Mortgage applicants  debt-to-income ratio has declined, meaning the FHA mortgage payment is a smaller portion of the borrower’s monthly income.

While HUD officials are pleased to see borrowers with a stronger personal finance balance sheet, there are two big concerns. First, the number of borrowers who are delinquent in paying their mortgages is growing. If those borrowers don’t figure out a way to make up their missing payments and start paying their FHA mortgage on time, more homes will fall into foreclosure, further depressing housing prices.

The second concern is rising unemployment. “If unemployment continues to track at high levels and goes to 11 or 12 percent, that’s a real struggle,” the senior HUD official said. “The big risk is a stagnant, slow recovery that keeps unemployment rates high because there is no loss mitigation technique for that.”

In other words, if FHA Mortgage applicants lose their jobs and can’t find replacements that pay enough to cover their monthly expenses, the FHA’s capital reserves fund sinking into the red will be the least of the government’s problems.

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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/mortgage-articles/fha-loan-requirements-about-to-get-tighter-1579751.html

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Reason to buy a Florida home now-FHA loan changes will cost Florida buyers more money they before!!

December 6th, 2009

FHA Home loan information

 Reason to buy a Florida home now FHA home loan changes will cost Florida buyers more money they before!!

 If you needed another reason to get off the fence and buy a Florida home, here it is. This is bad news for Florida home buyers and in my opinion could dramatically slow the Florida real estate recovery.  

Proposed changes in the guidelines for FHA mortgage loans will almost double the down payment required for these government backed FHA home loans.  In addition, the amount sellers can contribute towards a Florida home buyers closing costs will be cut in half.

Currently, the FHA down payment requirement is 3.5% of the purchase price and the seller can pay up to 6% of the purchase price towards a buyers closing costs and prepaid.

Example: If you were going to buy a Florida home priced at $250,000. At 3.5% your current down payment would be $8,750. Under the new FHA mortgage guidelines the down payment will be $15,000. Right now, the seller can pay $15,000 of the buyers closing costs.. That will be cut in half under the new FHA mortgage guidelines.. You may also need a higher credit-score and have to pay higher mortgage insurance premiums.

The changes are supposed to help rebuild the FHA insurance agency’s cash reserves as it struggles with rising defaults.  The theory is that if you force mortgage applicants  invest more money in their Florida  home it would make it less appealing for them to default and walk away from their Florida homes. If you make it too difficult for people to Florida homebuyers to get financing you won’t need to worry about them defaulting on their mortgage..

The rules will not be finalized until the FHA figures out how to put the new program into effect without derailing the housing market’s recovery.   

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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/mortgage-articles/reason-to-buy-a-florida-home-nowfha-loan-changes-will-cost-florida-buyers-more-money-they-before-1547907.html

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FHA Mulling Tighter FHA Mortgage Rules

December 3rd, 2009

FHA Mulling Tighter FHA Mortgage Rules

More up-front money from FHA mortgage applicants  may be required in an effort to buttress the agency’s finances

Florida Home buyers might soon have to bring more cash to the table to qualify for FHA insured mortgages. The FHA mortgage loans which now make up 30% of the mortgage originations, have surged in popularity because FHA Mortgage applicants need a down payment of just 3.5% to qualify, but the housing crash has battered the FHA insurance agency’s reserves.

(HUD) Housing & Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan outlined options for the FHA before the House Committee on Financial Services on Dec. 2. He said the agency’s capital reserve ratio has fallen to 0.53%—far below FHA’s 2% level required by law.

FHA is also weighing options to toughen underwriting standards to lessen default risks but won’t make detailed recommendations until January. Among the possibilities: increasing FHA credit score requirements, insurance premiums paid by FHA mortgage borrowers, and minimum down payment requirements. Donovan and FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens said they want borrowers to have “more skin in the game.” To that end, the agency might force FHA mortgage applicants to pay up-front premiums rather than rolling them into the loan and might reduce the concessions sellers can offer for closing costs from 6% to 3%.

Forcing FHA loan applicants s to pay the premium up front could add as much as $3,000 to a typical $200,000 fixed-rate FHA mortgage.

FHA and Credit Score Effects

The agency is seriously considering the possibility of tying payment requirements to credit scores. In other words, FHA borrowers with low credit scores might be required to put more money down and those with high credit scores could be rewarded with a lower minimum down payment. In an interview after the hearing, Stevens said that even FHA loans with higher down payments perform worse when the FHA mortgage applicants credit scores are low.

Stevens would not say what he thought about a House bill that would raise the minimum down payment for an FHA loan from 3.5% to 5%. But he said the agency does not want to make a move that would have a negative impact on the housing market recovery.

“We will consider every scenario,” Stevens said. “We are looking at this much more robustly. What we’re considering is, will this benefit the FHA [reserve] fund and protect the taxpayer far more than a little move like [increasing] the down payment?”

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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/mortgage-articles/fha-mulling-tighter-fha-mortgage-rules-1536466.html

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