June 3, 2016
HUD announced National Home Ownership Month this week, and the entire month of June will include special efforts to raise awareness of how “homeownership enhances lives and contributes to thriving communities we call home” according to a HUD press release. ‘Dare to Own the Dream’ is the theme of this year’s campaign, “reinforcing the long-held belief that owning a home remains one of the cornerstones of the American Dream”.
According to the press release, a lot of things have changed in the eight years of the Obama administration. “…the nations housing market was in free-fall, unemployment was rising and many families were left feeling trapped and anxious about their mortgages. He immediately took action to address these issues and to protect the middle class. The steps he took helped millions of Americans stay in their homes, save money on their mortgages”.
“Homeownership Month is a good time to reflect on the progress the Obama Administration has made to ensure that owning a home is always within the grasp of the average American family. A home is the place where we raise our children, establish roots in a community and plan our future.”
That’s according to HUD Secretary Julian Castro, who was quoted in the press release. He adds, “The opportunity to be a homeowner should be open to those ready and able to buy a home. As the housing market continues its recovery we must ensure that responsible homeowners have access to credit to make their dreams of homeownership a reality.”
HUD reminds loan applicants that the FHA single family loan program has been changed and improved a great deal over the years. In recent times many adjustments to certain aspects of the FHA loan program have made it more advantageous for borrowers to apply.
According to the press release, “In January 2015, FHA lowered its mortgage insurance premiums (MIP) because too many families were priced out of homeownership. As of March 31, 2016, FHA has endorsed approximately 1.3 million loans under the new reduced MIP. This price reduction is projected to save more than two million FHA homeowners an average of $900 annually and spur 250,000 new homebuyers to purchase their first home.”
During Home Ownership Month in June, HUD plans to host Twitter chats to discuss important topics surrounding homeownership and FHA. You can follow these chats with #OwntheDream. Topics include discussion of questions about housing counseling, preparing for an FHA mortgage loan application, and being ready for home ownership.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It is designed especially for real estate websites; a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those sites. It is simple to spend a few seconds customizing the state, counties, and widget size for the tool; you can copy the code and paste it into your website with ease. Get yours today:
http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_limits_widget
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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