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The Federal Housing Administration may require bailout money from the federal government to stay afloat, media outlets are reporting. The FHA insures mortgage lenders against losses.

A high number of mortgage delinquencies is at blame, according to sources.

“The FHA insured nearly 739,000 loans that were 90 days or more past due or in foreclosure at the end of September, an increase of more than 100,000 loans from one year ago,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “That represents around 9.6 percent of its $1.08 trillion in mortgage guarantees.”

The FHA is expected to report later this week that it has run through its reserves and will require a government bailout, The Wall Street Journal reports. If this takes place, it would be the first time that the FHA has ever needed a government bailout. Your comments?

Source: “FHA Nears Need for Taxpayer Funds,” The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 14, 2012)

Distressed homes sometimes need a lot of work, and so more lenders are offering loan options to help home owners or investors rehab the properties, Inman News reports.

More lenders are offering 203(k) loans, which are backed by the Federal Housing Administration, for renovations. These loans provide funds for the rehabilitation and repair of single-family homes.

“With so many REO and foreclosure properties available today, renovation lending has grown from a niche product to one of the best financing solutions in today’s market,” says Doug Long, president of Prospect Mortgage Retail and Correspondent Lending, which is opening a new correspondent lending division to help lenders serve more customers who seek an Indeed, “with 70 percent of America’s housing stock being built before 1992 and too many foreclosed properties damaged and uninhabitable, we see a tremendous opportunity to meet the demands of an underserved market,” says Impac Mortgage President William Ashmore. Starting this month, Impac Mortgage is offering standard and streamline FHA 203(k) loans through its consumer lending division. The company has also teamed up with RenovationReady, which provides services to buyers who want to renovate or rehabilitate a home.

Source: “More Lenders Offering FHA 203(k) Rehab Loans,” Inman News (Sept. 14, 2012)

Seven consumer advocacy groups say their analysis of mortgage data raises questions about whether lenders are steering minority borrowers into government-backed loans that are slightly more expensive than conventional mortgages.

The report looked at data disclosed by banks under the 2010 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. “The findings indicate persistent mortgage redlining and raise serious concerns about illegal and discriminatory loan steering,” according to a recent report.

The majority of government-backed loans are issued by the Federal Housing Administration, allowing borrowers to make down payments of 3.5% and remains virtually the sole source of low down-payment mortgages for homeowners today.

FHA loans require borrowers to pay mortgage insurance premiums no matter how much equity they have. Conventional loans, meanwhile, typically require mortgage insurance when borrowers have less than 20% in equity. Insurance premiums vary depending on the borrowers’ credit score and other risk factors.

“It’s not that the [FHA loan] isn’t a good product,” said Spencer Cowan, vice president at the Woodstock Institute, a Chicago-based research organization. The problem, he said, is that “to the extent that a borrower who could qualify for conventional financing is instead offered an FHA product, that person is being disadvantaged.”

More information at source: http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/07/19/report-raises-questions-over-racial-lending-disparities/

Here is our  update information to share with you! Are you now starting to ask: When can we buy again? Were you foreclosed on or did a short sale due to circumstances like a job loss or illness? The wait may not be as long as they were once told! 

Many banks have guidelines that prevent them from issuing loans to people with a foreclosure or short sale in their credit history in some cases for as much as seven years. That also doesn’t factor in the damage foreclosures and short sales can do to a person’s credit score, and the work former home owners’ will need to do to repair it so they’ll have a better chance at qualifying for financing again in the future. Please contact a local lender that knows the new regulations and is recommended by your Realtor!  

The wait-time varies among lenders and government entities. For example, the Federal Housing Administration says former home owners with a foreclosure must wait three years before they can qualify, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require a seven-year wait following a foreclosure. So clearify this with those helping you.  

As for short sales, sometimes these waits can be waived or drastically cut, depending on the borrower’s situation. FHA requires a three-year wait following a short sale, but it may waive that wait if the short sale was due to a job loss. 

Also, for borrowers who can come up with a higher down payment on their next home purchase, they may also not have as long to wait. For example, Fannie Mae will reduce the wait from seven years to two years for borrowers who come with a down payment of 20 percent or more. 

Source: “Lost Home to Foreclosure but Ready to Buy Again? Prepare to Wait in Lender ‘Penalty Box,’” Associated Press (Feb. 22, 2012)

Improving access to affordable mortgage financing for qualified home buyers and investors and committing additional resources to loan modifications and short sales will help reduce current and future inventories of real estate owned (REO) properties held by government agencies, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

In a letter sent today to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, NAR responded to the agencies’ recent request for input and offered its recommendations for selling REO properties held by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration.

In its letter, NAR urged the agencies to create an advisory board as they explore new options for selling foreclosed properties to ensure that efficiently disposing of agency REO properties will minimize taxpayer losses and reduce the negative effects that distressed properties have on local real estate markets.

“As the leading advocate for housing issues, REALTORS®know that foreclosures affect families, communities, the housing market and our nation’s economy,” said NAR President Ron Phipps. “We believe the government has an opportunity to minimize the impact of distressed properties on local markets by expanding financing opportunities, bolstering loan modifications and short sales efforts, and enhancing the efficient disposition of REO properties. This will help stabilize home prices and neighborhoods and help support the broader economic recovery.”

With the growth of green building the last decade, green lending has emerged to help finance those often costly “green” upgrades. 

Dave Porter, with PorterWorks in Stanton, Wash., who provides continuing education courses on green lending to those in the real estate industry, says there are several basic types of green mortgages, which most of the public still isn’t very aware about. For example, energy-efficient mortgages (EEMs) are “used to finance the construction of a home that would meet green standards or to buy one that’s newly built.” An energy improvement mortgage (EIM), on the other hand, is used to buy and fix up a house that needs green improvements, like insulation or new windows. 

The loans are available through mortgage programs by Fannie Mae, the Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Agriculture. More information for the Placerville, El Dorado County, California regions at: zteam4u@gmail.com

“They have slight differences in requirements, but basically they allow you to finance the home, plus the energy-conserving improvements, without having to qualify for the additional cost of the improvements,” Porter told the Chicago Tribune.

Source: “Market Ripe for Green Loans,” Chicago Tribune (Sept. 9, 2011)

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has once again extended its deadline for a program that provides up to $50,000 in interest-free loans to unemployed or medically ill home owners who are struggling to make their mortgage payments. 

The new deadline is now Sept. 15. HUD resumed taking applications for the program on Monday.The $1 billion Emergency Homeowners Loan Program, which launched in June, was originally slated to end on July 22, but HUD first extended the deadline to July 27 to give home owners more time to apply. Good news for the Sacramento and Placerville, California regions. 

Home owners eligible for the program will be able to qualify for up to $50,000 in interest-free loans for up to two years. Home owners who have had a drop in income of at least 15 percent from involuntary unemployment or underemployment due to economic conditions or a medical emergency are eligible for the program. Home owners must still be able to contribute $150 per month toward their mortgage. (Learn more about eligibility requirements and the participating states at http://findehlp.com.)

 Source: “HUD Extends Deadline for Unemployed Mortgage Assistance,” HousingWire (Aug. 29, 2011)

In June, the Department of Housing and Urban Development launched a new grant program to help home owners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments due to unemployment or unexpected medical bills.

The program offers eligible home owners $50,000 in interest-free loans for up to two years.

HUD has until the end of the government’s fiscal year, Sept. 30, to spend all of its $1 billion for the Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program (or EHLP), which will provide 27 states with aid for the program. Home owners in eligible states have until July 22 to complete their applications.

HUD hopes that 30,000 home owners can be helped through the program.

However, while some are seeing the program as a last chance to help unemployed home owners stay in their homes, others aren’t as convinced the program will do much good in ultimately lessening foreclosures in the country.  The Senate has yet to take up the bill.

For a full list of states and eligibility requirements for EHLP, visit the HUD Web site.

Source: “HUD to Give Away $1 Billion to Struggling Home Owners,” The Washington Post 7/4/11 

Other articles relating to the Sacramento and Placerville, California regions at: www.sierraproperties.com

More than 30,000 California families will face higher down payments, higher mortgage rates, and stricter loan qualification requirements if conforming loan limits on mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac are reduced beginning October 1, 2011, according to analysis by C.A.R.

Barring congressional action, the maximum FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac conforming loan limit will decline to $625,500 beginning Oct. 1, 2011, from the current $729,750 limit, though the majority of counties will fall far below the $625,500 maximum.  The conforming loan limit determines the maximum size of a mortgage that FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) can buy or guarantee.  Non-conforming or jumbo loans typically carry a higher mortgage interest rate than a conforming loan and require a higher down payment, increasing the monthly payment and negatively impacting housing affordability for California home buyers.

C.A.R. and NAR have long advocated making higher conforming loan limits permanent.  As a result of C.A.R.’s and NAR’s efforts, in 2008, Congress temporarily raised the conforming loan limits from $417,000 to $729,750 and has extended them annually through fiscal year 2011.

To view charts showing how the changes would impact various areas throughout California, visit: http://www.car.org/newsstand/newsreleases/2011newsreleases/loanlimits/ 

Other articles relating to the Sacramento and Placerville, California regions at: www.sierraproperties.com

A sluggish housing market has caused millions of home owners to lose their home to foreclosure, short sale, or deed in lieu of foreclosure. But once these former home owners get a better handle on their credit, how long do they have to sit on the sidelines until they can secure future financing to buy a home again?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a three-year waiting period following a foreclosure, and a two-year wait following a short sale, deed in lieu, or discharge or dismissal of bankruptcy. However, if borrowers can justify that the circumstance for the foreclosure or bankruptcy occurred because of an illness or job loss — or other “extenuating circumstance” — that may help reduce their wait. But with no such extenuating circumstances, these former home owners may have to wait longer, even up to seven years following a foreclosure or four years after bankruptcy, the article notes.

For loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, borrowers with perfect credit afterwards also will, in general, have to wait three years after a foreclosure and two years after a bankruptcy is discharged, The New York Times notes.

Following a short sale, borrowers will have to wait three years to secure another FHA loan — however, there are plenty of exceptions. Borrowers will have to wait three years if they were in default at the time of the short sale and had no extenuating circumstances. However, if the borrowers were on time with all their payments a year prior to the short sale, they may have no wait at all and might even qualify for an FHA loan immediately.

Source: “The Post-Foreclosure Wait,” The New York Times (June 23, 2011) 

Other articles relating to the Sacramento and Placerville, California regions at:www.sierraproperties.com