Archive for March, 2010

Platt Park

March 30th 2010

If you keep your nose to the Real Estate grindstone you have heard of the neighborhood called Platt Park. This is roughly bound by Broadway to Downing and I-25 to Evans. It’s called that because of a very nice park on Logan between Iowa and Florida here in South Denver called, well what else, Platt Park. This is a neighborhood that has become somewhat chic and in demand. There is a great shopping area on the 1400 and 1500 block of south Pearl St with several great restaurants. Continue Reading »

Posted by Mark Afman under Miscellaneous & Real Estate | No Comments »

CHFA Refresher

March 17th 2010

At this time when the tax credit is going to be gone soon it is important that you be aware of how CHFA works. CHFA is a Colorado program that helps first time buyers with little down payment get into homes. The program uses an FHA loan that is run through CHFA for the first mortgage and then CHFA provides a small second loan for the down payment assistance. The buyer has to contribute a minimum of $1,000 to the transaction and take a free first time buyers class, which is available online. Continue Reading »

Posted by Mark Afman under Home & Mortgage & Mortgage Blog & Mortgage Information & Real Estate | No Comments »

FHA to lower seller consessions

March 14th 2010

FHA is planning on implementing a policy that is designed to lower their risk. They will be lowering the amount that sellers are allowed to contribute to a buyers closing costs from 6% to 3%. They have studied defaulted loans and, by a large margin, when the seller concessions are up around 6%, the default rates are higher. This may be a good thing for risk but there is something that buyers of lower end properties need to be aware of. Continue Reading »

Posted by Mark Afman under Home & Mortgage & Mortgage Blog & Mortgage Information & Real Estate | No Comments »

FHA Up Front Mortgage Insurance going up…going down?

March 12th 2010

OK, so you may have heard that the FHA up front mortgage insurance premium (UFMIP) is raised from 1.75% to 2.25%. This is true as of April 5th. BUT, we just heard from our FHA source is Washington that FHA is actually going to consider changing that up again real soon. Now they are considering a drop in the UFMIP to 1% but then raising the Annual (read monthly) MIP to .98%. It is currently at .55%. FHA’s congressionally mandated reserves are lower then congress has mandated so they are trying to find ways of raising some funds to get those reserves back in place. I will keep you posted once we hear more. It’s an interesting time in the mortgage business.

Posted by Mark Afman under Home & Mortgage & Mortgage Blog & Mortgage Information & Real Estate | No Comments »