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FHA : Mortgage Loans, Rates, Home Buying, Selling, Foreclosures

All Posts Tagged With: "FHA"

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Should The FHA Insure Luxury Condo Loans?

Last week Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) announced an effort to increase the size of FHA builder loan guarantees for new housing units in major cities. Now Bloomberg News is reporting that FHA loans are being used to finance the acquisition of luxury apartments in New York.
“The Federal Housing Administration agreed in March to insure mortgages [...]

17Aug2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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FHA “Short Refinance” — Is This The Way To Reduce Foreclosures?

Imagine that you have a mortgage and want to refinance to get a lower rate but the debt is greater than the value of the home. Imagine also that if you can refinance you can avoid foreclosure.

The government is now trying to address this scenario, something which is common across the country, especially for those [...]

9Aug2010 | Peter G. Miller | 2 comments | Continued
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FHA Insurance Premiums Set For Fall Revamp

Borrowers who get FHA financing after October 4th will be subject to a new insurance fee schedule — with some costs rising and some falling.
The FHA has two insurance premiums. There’s an up-front mortgage insurance premium (MIP) paid at closing (or added to the loan amount) which is now equal to 2.25 percent of the [...]

5Aug2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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What Is A Mortgage Loan Worksheet?

Starting in 2010 the government introduced a new Good Faith Estimate form which required lenders to spell out loan costs in very precise and standardized language — information which lenders must honor at closing.
The new form from HUD has raised a question among some lenders as to whether a pre-approval letter or a pre-qualification letter [...]

1Jul2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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Is The FHA Moving Toward 1% Up-Front Insurance Premiums?

Is the up-front insurance charge for FHA mortgages going to fall?
FHA-backed mortgages are now a huge part of the financing landscape, but since April the up-front mortgage insurance premium has been 2.25 percent for most FHA borrowers. Now there’s some discussion regarding the idea of a 1 percent up-front MIP — but a higher annual [...]

17May2010 | Peter G. Miller | 1 comment | Continued
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What’s a Hard Money Mortgage?

When we think of mortgages we usually think of long-term financing insured by the FHA, VA or with private mortgage insurance. If we have enough cash for a down payment of at least 20 percent then we don’t need mortgage insurance and can just get a conventional loan.
However, there are situations where owners run [...]

12May2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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What’s A Foreclosure Purchase Mortgage?

In the world of real estate and foreclosures there’s a financial creature called a “purchase money mortgage.” This is the financing used to acquire a home rather than money to refinance the property or add improvements.
At first it might seem that a purchase money mortgage was the same as any other financing but that’s not [...]

11May2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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Google Mortgage Ads — Do They Reduce Borrower Costs?

Several months ago Google began offering a new service for advertisers, an ability to post comparison ads. You can see this today with mortgages — just go to:
Conventional Mortgages
FHA Mortgages
Jumbo Mortgages
VA Mortgages
Go to any of these links and you’ll see that Google generates a search for the type of mortgage you want and that at [...]

3May2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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How Can We Slash Mortgage Insurance Costs?

Private mortgage insurance companies are the private-sector equivalent of the VA and FHA. Such insurance allows individuals to borrow with little down — but only if they pay a premium for such coverage.

How It Works

Some important points about private mortgage insurance (MI) include:

MI companies are state regulated, not federally regulated. State regulation is very [...]

26Apr2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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Mortgage Reform Now — 6 Ways To Fix What’s Broke

For all the talk of reform on Wall Street, a quicker and easier way to assure that big banks don’t fail and small borrowers don’t get screwed is to simply fix the mortgage origination system.
Fixing the mortgage system is crucial if we’re to prevent another financial meltdown. If the mortgages are done right than mortgage-backed [...]

22Apr2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued