FHA Loans and FHA Mortgages

Are you ready for some more changes in the mortgage industry? Many of us know that there has been a lot of change, both with FHA loans and conventional loans. And the changes that I am about to mention have already been out there for about a month now, but this is more of a refresher post of information. These are changes that will start to take place next week and up until January 1st, 2009.

Is change good?  Yes and no…..  The first major change as of right now is that down payment assistance programs will be discontinued for now. As you noticed, I said discontinued and not banned.  HUD and the government wanted to ban these programs, more so because of HUD’s misleading figures. This is something that I have proof of and that I will write about in the next few days. Hence why I went to Washington D.C. to help keep the DPA programs alive. For more info, please read:

Mr. Belonger Goes To Washington!  By Patricia Kennedy

Video : Down payment assistance rally - 9/10/08 -  with Jeff Belonger

As of now, there are some gentleman handshakes on the table between Congressman Barney Frank and the rest of the Senate in regards to bringing back these down payment assistance programs. Right now, they end on October 1st, 2008. But with the help of so many individuals such as you and me, and Scott Syphax of Nehemiah, the DPA’s should be back by the end of the year. (this is my opinion)

What will the new DPA look like and what is being talked about? Some other things that HUD supports as a compromise to bill HR 6694 are :

  –  Borrowers with a credit score above 680 will be allowed to participate in these down payment assistance programs with no penalties.

  –  Borrowers with credit scores from 620 to 679 could be subject to higher insurance premiums. (I personally wouldn’t have a problem with this)

  –  Borrowers with credit scores below 620 would be banned from using the down payment assistance program until mid 2009. ( I truly think that we could improve on this one. First off, why down to 620?  Secondly, even people with credit scores of 570 or such can still have decent credit, under FHA’s credit guidelines.  I would think 600 would be a good place to start. And I will share some of the facts with charts in another post in the next several days. These are from outside sources that aren’t connected with HUD & FHA.

FHA Loan changes for 2008 - 2009

Part 1 - Down Payment Assistance Programs

Part 2 - Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premiums

Part 3 - Down payment and Maximum Mortgage Requirements

- FHA Loans - FHA Mortgages - Conventional Loans - VA Loans -

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