The concept of the site is really great. It allows for members of the lending community a chance to blog and speak up about their particular markets.

Be sure to check them out and catch up with a lender in your particular market today.

Eligible single family homes in revitalization areas are listed exclusively for sale through the Good Neighbor Next Door Program for five days. Those professionals eligible to purchase a home under the Good Neighbor Next Door Fund are able to purchase the home during this time period at 50% of the list price of the home.

In exchange for the greatly reduced purchase price, the buyer agrees to live in the home as a primary residence for a period of 36 months (3 years). Additionally, the buyer must sign a “silent second” mortgage agreement, equal to the remaining 50% of the list price of the home. No payment will ever be paid on the “silent second” provided the buyer remains in the home for the agreed upon 36 months.

To make the HUD Good Neighbor Next Door home even more affordable, the new homeowner may apply for an FHA-insured mortgage with a down payment as low as $100. They may also finance all closing costs.

The list of available properties changes weekly and is limited. Contact a HUD/FHA counselor for further information.

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 includes one provision that has set permanent increases to FHA loan limits.
The following are the increased limits:

$625,500 in high-cost areas
$271,050 in low-cost areas

$417,000 national limit on reverse mortgages (according to HUD)

$800,775 for duplexes in high-cost areas
$967,950 for triplexes in high-cost areas

$1,202,925 for four-unit properties in high-cost areas
$521,250 for four-unit properties in low-cost areas

$938,250 for a single-family residence in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii and the Virgin Islands

The economy has taken quite the hit, and although finances are tight, people still want to purchase homes. An especially appealing option is an FHA loan, which does not require the borrower have stellar credit or a substantial down payment. Now the word is out, and FHA loans are on the rise. But borrowers beware: Experts are urging that you be on the lookout for lenders without much experience in issuing FHA loans, because although they might tell you what you want to hear, what they’re not telling you is that they haven’t even read the manual. Some of them might not even have a copy.

Before the market fell and was still in a semi-reasonable state, many lenders weren’t dealing much with FHA loans and only had a handful of FHA specialists. Now suddenly more and more people are looking to finance their home with an FHA loan, and these lenders had to compensate in order to handle the demand — the result is more loans issued under lenders lacking significant FHA knowledge.

But don’t worry — if you’ve done your homework and are confident with the lender you’ve chosen, then you should be in for a smooth ride.
Daniel Jacobs, the chief executive of 1st Metropolitan Mortgage Co. said: “FHA loans will perform better than subprime loans have for one major reason: The agency requires borrowers to document their income and occupy the home, so it excludes speculators, who played a significant role in subprime defaults.” In other words, if the underwriter doesn’t find that you meet the criteria, then you won’t be issued a loan. Which might not sound like a good thing, but trust me — it is: You don’t want to end up like the many people who were issued subprime loans when they shouldn’t have been issued a loan at all. So before you get in the passenger’s seat, make sure that the driver has read the manual and knows to first release the parking brake.
Bottom line — do your research.

“I want to thank FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery and John Garvin, his Senior Advisor and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing Programs, for taking a leadership role on this issue. This will assist the tax credit market by removing some of the impediments to financing with FHA insurance as well as eliminating unnecessary costs in the program,” said Kieran P. Quinn, CMB, Chairman of the MBA. “This is a major step forward in modernizing and enhancing FHA processes and will make it much easier to combine tax credits with FHA insurance, producing more affordable housing at a lower cost.”

A few excerpts:

From Sen. Christopher Dodd,

“My hope would have been that this bill we’ll send them is something the House could support — that’s still my hope,” said Dodd, who crafted the bill with Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the panel’s senior Republican. “We’re getting down to the time here where we may not get a bill if this thing goes on much longer.”

A response by Rep. Maxine Waters,

“We’re going to fight on this,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who made an impassioned plea for the funds in a closed-door meeting of House Democrats this week. “It’s extremely important that we fight to help the communities that are being devastated in this subprime (mortgage loan) meltdown.”

“Many of today’s unusually high number of foreclosures are not preventable,” he said in prepared remarks to a mortgage-lending forum meeting in Arlington, Va. “There is little public policy-makers can, or should, do to compensate for untenable financial decisions.”

It is estimated that 2.5 million homes will begin the process of being foreclosed when is all said and done. The Bush administration has been focused on reducing the number of foreclosures with the lending companies and is tring to salvage what they can of the forecloser cases.

According to Paulson, there have been 1.7 million homeowners helped since July 2007. Congress is currently working on a bill that will allow for the FHA to provide cheaper mortgages to help even more homeowners keep their home.

However legislative differences between the House and Senate could prevent a timely passage. Similarly the White House has said it would veto any bill that comes through its office.

“We haven’t waited for Congress,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston told reporters.

Preston said he was concerned that the Senate’s foreclosure rescue would block the FHA from charging riskier borrowers higher premiums and that the House plan would require the agency to insure mortgages in which the down payment is paid by the seller. Both moves could mean big losses for the FHA, he said.

“Taxpayers should not have to absorb preventable, foreseeable losses,” Preston said.

“For many years, people in the industry and in state government have expressed the need for a clear, mutually-agreed upon memorandum of understanding between FHA and states for the financing of single family properties,” said HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner Brian D. Montgomery. “This MOU will help people in need right now by harmonizing the work of FHA and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (HFA), and by making FHA loans more available to those who qualify for them.”

There is still a significant increase in FHA business throughout Minnesota as in the first quarter of 2008 there was an increase of 126 percent participation.

Visit Insightnews.com to learn more about this groundbreaking event.

Debates in the Senate going on right now will eliminate these Nonprofit Organizations while the House debates imposing new regulations on these programs. These programs have become very popular and have surged over the past 10 years.

Some question the nonprofit status of these programs and even say that these types of no money down loans could put taxpayers at risk of having to bail out the government backed mortgages.

The programs, which receive no federal subsidy, help borrowers qualify for loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, a government agency that backs loans made to low-income borrowers or those with poor credit.

Sellers often times inflate the price of the home to offset the down-payment assistant. But on the other side, individuals who use the program would be kept from purchasing a home.