Articles in Category: FHA Loan Types

May 28, 2024

Before Your First FHA Mortgage Payment

Do you know what to expect after your FHA mortgage closes? Borrowers should know a few common things about what to expect after closing day, such what to expect from payments and mortgage statements. What To Know About FHA Loan Mortgage Statements Not all home loans have the same terms and conditions, so be sure to review your contract carefully to learn how your statement will be delivered each month or if the loan stipulates you have a payment book to rely on instead. Assuming your mortgage payment notification automatically comes to you electronically or by U.S. Mail is not safe–make a point to learn what your contract says. Do you need an alternative option? Ask early. Your mortgage statement should have information about what you owe. This includes any | more...

May 24, 2024

Commonly Asked Questions About Applying For An FHA Home Loan

By Joe Wallace

Are you ready to stop renting and start owning your own home? The FHA home loan program was designed to help borrowers get into affordable homes with a low down payment requirement. FHA loan rules feature more forgiving FICO score standards (lender standards will also apply), and first-time home buyers should know there are down payment assistance programs in many states that can help. What sort of questions are common for FHA home loans? Read below to learn some important details every new borrower should keep in mind. How Long Does It Take To Save And Prepare For A Mortgage Application? Start planning as early as possible. It’s good to give yourself a year or more to review your credit reports, start monitoring your credit, and work on getting your | more...

May 22, 2024

FHA Home Loan Options To Consider

By Joe Wallace

FHA loans have some special features. There are important options to know before you start applying for a home loan. Financing Mortgage Insurance On Your FHA Mortgage Borrowers without a 10% downpayment on their FHA mortgage are required to render a mortgage insurance premium. This is payable for the loan’s lifetime. Those who make a 10% downpayment qualify to have the insurance removed after 11 years. It pays to make the larger downpayment on an FHA mortgage even if you don’t have to. But if you choose to save money upfront on your home loan, you can include the FHA Up-Front Mortgage Insurance Premium (UFMIP) in your home loan amount. Ask your loan officer about this option early. FHA loan rules in HUD 4000.1 require you to pay the entire | more...

May 20, 2024

Down Payment Issues In Today’s Housing Market

By Joe Wallace

In the days before January 1, 2024, finance pundits and mortgage blogs (at least in some circles) were expecting a housing recovery to be underway by now. But as of May 2024, those commentators are revising their opinions about when and how a market recovery could happen. Consider what Yahoo!Finance published on May 19, 2024. “At the beginning of the year, housing experts and homebuyers looked forward to better buying conditions — interest rates were poised to drop, a shift expected to free up inventory and cool surging home prices.” That, according to Yahoo!Finance, has “mostly changed.” The housing market is headed into summer 2024 without the hoped-for mortgage rate cuts. There are also problems with housing inventory in some markets. Even the National Association of Realtors has complained in | more...

May 17, 2024

Conventional Loans Versus FHA Mortgages

By Joe Wallace

What’s the major difference between FHA mortgage loans and conventional loans? Actually, there are several, but the first and most basic difference is that an FHA mortgage is guaranteed by the government. A conventional loan is not. The government’s backing of an FHA mortgage makes the loan less of a risk to the financial institution offering you a line of credit to purchase your home. And because the loan is backed by the government, FHA mortgages feature lower down payment requirements than many conventional mortgages. You may find conventional loans requiring 10 or even 20 percent down, whereas an FHA mortgage for qualified borrowers with FICO scores of 580 or above may qualify for maximum financing. That means a down payment requirement of only 3.5% of the adjusted value of | more...

May 15, 2024

Buying A Home? Ask The Seller These Questions

By Joe Wallace

Are you looking for a home to buy with an FHA loan? It’s good to create a list of questions to ask the seller. Making the most informed decision you can on a specific house is important, and in addition to what you learn by asking about natural disasters in the area, property taxes, and the age of the roof, the way the seller responds to your question can be just as important as the answer you get. Asking Questions You should definitely do your own research on the local area to learn whether floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, or other natural disasters are a problem. But don’t miss the chance to ask the seller, even if you already know the answers. Ask the seller, “Has the home itself experienced a disaster, | more...

May 7, 2024

Is My Credit Good Enough For A Mortgage?

By Joe Wallace

One of the most commonly asked questions about any home loan program including FHA mortgages? “Is my credit good enough?” It’s a great question, but for some applicants, it’s not asked soon enough in the process to make much of a difference. The truth is if you start working on your credit the moment you decide to commit to purchasing a home in the future, the better. And that’s because there isn’t just a single FICO score to aspire to or a single set of tasks to perform so you can be “ready”. What does it take to qualify for any home loan? A combination of factors including your FICO scores, loan repayment history, credit utilization, and employment stability. That’s what it takes to qualify for ANY mortgage. What does | more...

April 29, 2024

Before Your Home Loan Gets Approved

By Joe Wallace

New house hunters looking for a home to buy with an FHA mortgage soon learn about the phases in the process of finding, making an offer, and moving into a new home. There is an initial phase for planning and saving and a house-hunting phase, where you start looking for a house to make an offer on. We examine some key parts of the process below. Pre-Approval / Pre-Qualifying For An FHA Home Loan When you look at houses with an eye on making an offer, it helps to get prequalified for a loan to learn how much you might be approved for when you make the offer. Prequalification is a process resulting in a rough estimate of how much you could qualify to borrow. It is not the same | more...

April 24, 2024

Should You Buy A Home Now?

By Joe Wallace

U.S. News and World Report published an article in Spring 2024 with data from a U.S. News survey of American mortgage trends this year. The information from that report indicates that many potential real estate buyers may be delaying their commitments to see what happens with mortgage loan interest rates. In that survey, 67% of house hunters who responded say they are on a wait-and-see basis with respect to home loan interest rates. These house hunters hope to wait out the rates before buying a house this year. Also according to the survey, approximately one quarter of the respondents “want to see them below 5% before buying, which isn’t expected to happen in 2024 or even 2025. About half (49%) are willing to wait for more than six months for | more...

April 22, 2024

Mortgage Rate Trends In The Second Quarter 2024

By Joe Wallace

At the time this article was written, 30-year fixed-rate FHA mortgage rates were listed in the low 7% range. Some expected that position to be far more prevalent in the past than it actually is as we review mortgage rates in the second quarter of the year. Is there a chance of recovery in the coming months? Conditions aren’t clear, but the Fed’s future actions could determine the direction of things. Recovery Prospects For The Housing Market May Be Tied To Future Fed Actions (Again) Matthew Graham of Mortgage News Daily reports, “While (Fed Chair) Powell and the Fed repeat that the rate path depends on economic data, it’s no surprise to see recent comments acknowledging a surprising amount of strength in the recent data.” Graham also says, “Stronger data | more...