Mortgage Insurance Deductible through 2014

December 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment

You may have heard that last week, Congress passed and President Obama signed the 2014 Tax Increase Prevention Act. It has some good news for home owners who currently pay various forms of mortgage insurance. If you pay mortgage insurance, including private mortgage insurance (pmi), or VA, FHA or USDA forms of mortgage insurance during 2014,  you may be able to deduct that on your 2014 income taxes.

Before you get too excited, this act does not extend the mortgage insurance deduction past 2014.

So if you are paying any form of mortgage insurance, especially if it’s private mortgage insurance or FHA mortgage insurance, it still makes sense to see if you can eliminate or reduce your payment with a refinance as you will not be able to deduct your mortgage insurance during 2015 (as things currently stand).

If I can help you with your refi or home purchase on property located anywhere in Washington state, please contact me!

 

Filed Under: Financial Planning, Legislation, Mortgage Insurance Tagged With: , , ,

Mortgage Insurance loses tax deduction benefit in 2014

May 21, 2014 by 2 Comments

mortgageporterraiseOver the past few years, home owners have enjoyed deducting private mortgage insurance (pmi) premiums from their income tax. This is also true for government forms of mortgage insurance (aka funding fee or guarantee fee) with FHA, VA and USDA mortgage loans. This benefit is coming to an end effective on 2014 tax returns.

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Filed Under: Financial Planning, Mortgage Insurance, Refinance Tagged With: , , , ,

Happy 2014

January 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment

IMG_20131230_205252Earlier this week I met with my team at Mortgage Master to review goals for this year. This past year at the company has been great. I added a Loan Officer Assistant, Crystal and our main office moved to a beautiful new office in a more central location. Mortgage Master has also added to their management team, which has been beneficial by providing extra support to our mortgage originators. I’ve added additional tools to what I offer clients as well and I’m eager to start better implementing them into our services. I am constantly reviewing and trying new programs with the goal of helping clients have better tools and information to help make informed decisions for their mortgage needs.

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2014 Predictions for the Seattle Real Estate and Mortgage Trends #SeattleREchat

December 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment

In this year’s final episode of Seattle Real Estate Chat (we’re coming back in 2014!), Jim Reppond and I review 2013 and make a few prediction for 2014 regarding the real estate market and mortgages in the greater Seattle area.

We will resume our regular scheduling of Tuesday mornings at 10:00 am PST for Seattle Real Estate Chat on Tuesday, January 7, 2014.

Thank you for watching our show – I hope you’ll tune in next year. 🙂

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2014 VA Loan Limits for Washington State

December 21, 2013 by 2 Comments

2014 VA loan guarantee limits for Washington State have been released.  VA loans do not have “limits” like conforming or FHA loans. They do have limits as to the amount VA loans will guarantee. The loan amounts below reflect what VA will lend up to 100% loan to value. Loan amounts above the limits below have reduced down payments for Veterans who qualify for this benefit.

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2014 FHA Loan Limits Reduced in Washington State

December 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Last week, HUD announced the FHA loan limits for 2014 with most counties in Washington having loan limits reduced from 2013 levels. In the Seattle/King County area, FHA loan amounts for a single unit dwelling will be reduced by $61,500 from $567,500 to $506,000 in 2014. Kitsap County was hit the hardest with a reduction of $167,950 for single unit dwellings. The higher loan limits that we have appreciated over the past few years were intended to be “temporary” and HUD has been attempting to shrink FHA’s footprint, so we shouldn’t be too surprised over the lower loan limits.

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2014 FHA Loan Limits for Washington State

December 7, 2013 by 3 Comments

FHA loan limits for 2014 have been reduced from 2013. For a home located in greater Seattle, the new FHA loan limit is reduced from $567,500 to $506,000 in 2014. The reductions are across the board for Washington state counties and some loan limits are below 2014 conforming loan limits.

FHA streamline refinances without appraisals and with loan amounts over the the 2014 loan limits will not be subject to the new loan limits.

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Reduction to 2014 Conforming Loan Limits May Be Delayed

October 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Edward DeMarco, Acting Director of the FHFA, pretty much confirmed that we can anticipate lower conforming loan limits next year. This is from his prepared remarks for “Getting Our House in Order”:

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Filed Under: Fannie, Freddie and FHFA, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,
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