My Mind on Mortgages

For many people saving for a rainy day is hard enough as it is.  Add on top of that all the other financial objectives a person is typically concerned with (i.e. retirement, college savings, paying down debt) saving for a down payment on a home can be difficult.  Because of this I often have clients [...]

With so many homebuyers utilizing FHA mortgage financing in the past year I’m guessing many will have questions related to the tax deductibility of mortgage insurance premiums.  Before I jump into detailed tax information let’s do a quick refresher.  I also need to tell you that I am not a licensed tax professional.
What is mortgage [...]

Two days ago HUD announced changes to the popular FHA loan program.  The changes are designed to “strengthen the FHA’s capital reserves, while enabling the agency to continue to fulfill its mission to provide access to homeownership for undeserved communities.“
If you’ll recall last September FHA announced that their capital reserves (used to insure FHA mortgages) [...]

There are a few things to know about standard FHA loans.
*Minimum down payment requirement: Currently homebuyers who use FHA mortgage financing to buy a home can put as little as 3.5% down and borrow the remaining amount.
*Down payment may be gifted: FHA is one of the few programs that allows the entire down payment to [...]

By some estimates as many as 35-40% of homes sold in the Portland-Metro area thus far in 2009 have been bank-owned or short sales.  Often times these sales involve distressed property because the sellers lack financial motivation to provide basic maintenance to the home.
Looking ahead I don’t expect this pattern to change as we head [...]

I was recently asked by a real estate professional about FHA’s anti-flipping rule.  Since I did some digging on the subject I thought I would post what I found because I suspect many others are coming across similar circumstances.
What is the anti-flipping rule?
It prevents homebuyers from obtaining FHA financing when they write an offer to [...]

The Washington Post published this article stating that FHA is expected to announce changes to the popular FHA loan program tomorrow in an effort to shore up the agencies finances.  The objective of the changes is designed to have homebuyers put more “skin in the game” so that walking away from their home is less [...]

If you haven’t heard, the United States Congress and President Obama have passed legislation that expands the first-time homebuyer tax credit and extends it into the first half of 2010. Before we go any further, we want to make it clear that we are not tax professionals and recommend that you contact a tax professional [...]

Wells Fargo announced a key change to their underwriting guidelines today.  The reason I am blogging about them is because a) they are fairly big changes & b) Wells Fargo tends to be a bellwether for our industry.  Therefore, if Wells Fargo is announcing this today it won’t surprise us to see others following suit [...]

The expiration of the $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit is only 52 days from today.  For those who qualify for the $8,000 credit they must close on their transaction no later than November 30th.  And although there has been much speculation about an extension of the credit; to date nothing has been passed by Congress and [...]