FHA Proposes Lower Allowable Seller Paid Concessions
March 6, 2012 by James Williamson · Leave a Comment
On February 23rd, FHA proposed that the maximum amount that a seller or other interested third party can pay toward a buyer’s costs at closing (to include closing costs, prepaid items, discount points, up-front MIP, and any interest rate buydown) be reduced from 6% to 3% or $6000, whichever is greater. At first glance, this [...]
FHA MIP Going Up Again
March 6, 2012 by James Williamson · Leave a Comment
FHA mortgage insurance is called MIP (Mortgage Insurance Premium) and is collected two ways, up-front and per month. Over the last few years, FHA has already increased the MIP several times. Unfortunately, they are back at it again. Effective with all case numbers assigned on or after April 1st, the up-front MIP is increasing from [...]
Week of Feb 21 – Econmic Roundup
February 21, 2012 by James Williamson · 1 Comment
Mostly good news to report as the DOW Jones stock index has recently climbed to its highest point in years and January Housing Starts are up to the highest level since October 2008. Here are three other key recent economic developments of which you should be aware: Good News from Greece After several weeks of [...]
Mortgage Insurance Guidelines Easing Up
February 21, 2012 by James Williamson · Leave a Comment
A few years back, mortgage insurance guidelines got so strict that it became common for a loan officer to obtain a mortgage approval from an investor and then run into a Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) approval problem. The main reason for this is that the PMI guidelines had become stricter than the investor guidelines. Well, [...]
Make Sure You are Working with Best Appraisers
February 7, 2012 by James Williamson · Leave a Comment
It would be a big understatement to say the the residential appraisal business has changed over the last few years. Rules have been enacted to restrict communication between loan officers, customers, and appraisers. Loan officers and realtors are, in fact, not even allowed to talk with appraisers directly about a property or its value any [...]
Unemployment Drops to Lowest Level in Three Years
February 7, 2012 by James Williamson · Leave a Comment
Friday’s Employment data exceeded expectations in nearly every area. Against a consensus forecast of 135K new jobs, the economy added 243K jobs in January, the most since April 2011! In addition, revisions to prior months added another 60K jobs. The Unemployment Rate also dropped from 8.5% to 8.3% (see graph below), which is the LOWEST [...]
Economic Week In Review
January 31, 2012 by James Williamson · Leave a Comment
In last Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, Fed officials stated that they now expect economic conditions will allow the fed funds rate to remain at exceptionally low levels until at least “late 2014″. Wow! The Fed has never been quite this clear for so long into the future. Prior statements extended the expected time frame only [...]
Economic Update: Improving Economy Bad for Mortgage Rates
January 24, 2012 by James Williamson · Leave a Comment
An improving US economic outlook was negative for mortgage rates over the last week. Reduced concerns about Europealso caused a partial reversal in the “flight to safety” trade. As a result, mortgage rates ended the week higher. Early in the month, the December Employment report showed a larger than expected increase of 200K jobs, and [...]
FHA Contemplating Reduced Seller Paid Concessions
January 24, 2012 by James Williamson · Leave a Comment
On Friday, FHA released a letter proposing that the maximum allowable seller concessions be reduced from the current 6% limit to something less. FHA is contemplating this change to “better manage risk” as they feel the current level exposes the FHA and borrowers to excess risk by creating an incentive that inflates the appraised value. [...]
Economic Update
January 17, 2012 by James Williamson · Leave a Comment
The news from Europe has been mostly negative over the last week. Economic growth in Germany has been slower than expected. Negotiations on restructuring Greek debt also have not progressed as planned. S&P is downgrading the debt of several European countries, including France. Lastly, the European Central Bank (ECB) has given no indication that it [...]
