I try to send out good information in these posts but hey, I’m human and make mistakes once in a while. Last week I posted an entry entitled CHFA Refresher. Well the good folks at CHFA read it and sent me a nice email that corrected a few small things so I thought I should pass this along.
March 20th 2010
The mortgage industry has had a great run of rates on 30 year fixed loans in the 5% range for a long time. This is partly due to the Fed buying up mortgage bonds to (what some would say “artificially”) keep mortgage rates low. Rates are tied, somewhat directly, to Mortgage Backed Securities. These bonds are bought and sold just like stocks. The ups and downs of rates are normally tied to the buying and selling of these bonds by the private marketplace. Continue Reading »
Posted by Mark Afman under Home & Mortgage & Mortgage Blog & Mortgage Information & Real Estate | No Comments »
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 »
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 »
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 »
February 4th 2010
This past Monday, I attended a webinar on a new program that has been rolled out by CHFA (Colorado Housing Finance Authority). Well it’s sorta new. It is actually the old MRB FirstStep program taken off the shelf, dusted off, and put back on the market. If you are familiar with CHFA then you may remember back when the first time buyer program from CHFA had very competitive rates. Sometimes they were even better then regular FHA rates. Continue Reading »
Posted by Mark Afman under Home & Mortgage & Mortgage Blog & Mortgage Information & Real Estate | No Comments »
January 28th 2010
By now you may know that FHA is waiving the 90 day flip rule as of February 1st, 2010. Remember that there are a few restrictions: 1) It is only a 1 year waiver of this rule to try to help move inventory. 2) If the sales price is 20% higher then the sellers acquisition costs, then the seller has to justify the increase with a list of improvements or if there are no improvements made, the appraiser has to explain the increase. Continue Reading »
Posted by Mark Afman under Home & Mortgage & Mortgage Blog & Mortgage Information & Real Estate | No Comments »