My Mind on Mortgages

In my communication with customers who are considering a refinance mortgage I can often sense a general sense of reluctance to “restart” their mortgage on a new 30 year or 15 year amortization schedule.  Sometimes I get asked questions such as “If I refinance won’t I lose all those payments that I’ve already made?”.  The [...]

Homes that are the subject of a FHA mortgage application must meet minimum property requirements as determined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”: the agency which oversees the FHA mortgage insurance program).  I am often asked if specific repairs will be required by the lender when a FHA loan is in play. [...]

One of the questions I’m often asked is “what happens when my loan is transferred to another loan servicer?“.  It is not uncommon for a financial institution to transfer the servicing rights on a mortgage to another financial institution.  99% of the time there is no fall out from this event.  The only thing that [...]

The Federal Housing Administration announced that it would increase the mortgage insurance premiums for FHA mortgages beginning April 1st, 2012.  Here is the announcement copied from the FHA website: “…FHA announced a new premium structure for FHA-insured single family mortgages: as of this spring, the annual mortgage insurance premium (MIP) will increase by 0.10 percent [...]

Do you remember that HUGE increase you got in your pay-check last year when Congress implemented the payroll-tax cut as a way to stimulate the economy?  I ask that sarcastically. The 2% cut in payroll taxes for employees equates to about $30 per week for a household making $80,000 per year.  Well, it’s time to [...]

In 2011 Fannie Mae eased it’s cash-out refinancing restrictions to allow home-buyers who purchase a home with all cash to replenish their funds with a “cash-out” refinance as soon as a day after closing on the original purchase. Background: Prior to this home-buyers were not eligible to apply for a cash-out refinance inside the first [...]

Congress approved an appropriations bill that amongst other things restores the FHA loan limits that have been in place the past 2 years and extends them through 2013.  For the Portland-Metro area this means the maximum FHA loan amount goes back to $417,000.  If you’d like to check another location you can do so at [...]

Fannie Mae has released some details regarding the revised “DU Refi Plus” program that falls under the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).  You can read the press release HERE.  At this point I am not aware of any lenders who have actually implemented these updates into their published underwriting guidelines so as far as [...]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unveiled a new HUD-1 settlement statement recently which provides a clue as to what the new Good Faith Estimate (GFE) will look like in the future.  I’m not aware of the timeline for implementation of these new mortgage disclosures but I suspect it will be in the next 12 [...]

I was quoted in this morning’s Oregonian again in an article about President Obama’a announcement yesterday about expanding qualifying guidelines for the Home Affiordable Refinance Program (HARP).  You can see the article HERE.