Today HUD issued a press release confirming pending changes to help bolster FHA’s capital reserves.
“These are essential and appropriate measures to manage and protect FHA’s single-family insurance programs” said Galante. “In addition to protecting the MMI Fund, these changes will encourage the return of private capital to the housing market, and make sure FHA remains a vital source of affordable and sustainable mortgage financing for future generations of American homebuyers.”
Some of the changes to take place with HUD have already been announced. Here are a few points from today’s press release
- FHA annual mortgage insurance will remain on the mortgage for the life of the loan. This is the mortgage insurance that is paid monthly. Once this goes into effect, home owners will need to either refinance to a non-FHA loan or pay it off to no longer have mortgage insurance.
- Mortgage insurance is set to increase. The annual mortgage insurance (remember, this is the one that is paid monthly) is set to increase by 0.10 basis points. FHA Jumbos will see an increase in the mortgage insurance by 0.05%.
- FHA Jumbo’s will have a larger down payment requirement. Currently a home buyer can do as little as 3.5% down on all FHA insured mortgages. Once this goes into effect, the minimum down payment for an FHA jumbo will be 5%. In the greater Seattle area, loan amounts over $417,000 and up to $567,500 are currently considered “FHA Jumbos”.
- Manual underwrites for credit scores below 620 with debt to income ratios over 43%. Currently, I believe the lowest credit score our company can do for an FHA insured mortgage is 640.
We are waiting for HUD to issue Mortgagee Letters before this goes into effect.
Stay tuned!
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