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The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced last week it is pushing back the implementation date for new premium structures on FHA-insured mortgages to Oct. 4 from the original date of Sept. 7. 

Following FHA Commissioner David Stevens’ recent announcement that up-front premiums for FHA-insured mortgages would be reduced beginning Sept. 7 from 2.25 percent to 1 percent, lenders expressed concerns that they would need more than five weeks to update loan disclosures and computer systems.

FHA previously raised up-front premiums from 1.75 percent to 2.25 percent in April to cope with rising losses on FHA-guaranteed loans. The Obama administration promised to reduce up-front premiums if Congress gave it the authority to raise annual premiums beyond their statutory limit of 0.55 percent.  HR 5981, legislation raising the statutory limit on annual premiums to 1.55 percent, was approved by lawmakers on Aug. 4 and has been signed by President Obama. 

More information at:  http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/ver-1/HUD/federal_housing_administration/docs/BottStatementPremiumChanges.pdf

Have interest rates hit bottom? Or do you expect them to go up? Has your credit score improved enough so that you might be eligible for a lower-rate mortgage? Would you like to switch into a different type of mortgage?

The answers to these questions will influence your decision to refinance your mortgage. But before deciding, you need to understand all that refinancing involves. Your home may be your most valuable financial asset, so you want to be careful when choosing a lender or broker and specific mortgage terms. Remember that, along with the potential benefits to refinancing, there are also costs.

When you refinance, you pay off your existing mortgage and create a new one. You may even decide to combine both a primary mortgage and a second mortgage into a new loan. Refinancing may remind you of what you went through in obtaining your original mortgage, since you may encounter many of the same procedures–and the same types of costs–the second time around. 

More information at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/refinancings/default.htm