Articles Tagged With: FHA Loan News

July 1, 2015

FHA Refinance Loans: House Prices On The Rise

House prices are on the rise and could even be approaching highs not seen since 2006 according to some financial reports. According to the Black Knight Financial Services Home Price Index, prices are well under 10% away from their 2006 peaks. According to the Black Knight official site, “The Black Knight HPI combines the companys extensive property and loan-level databases to produce a repeat sales analysis of home prices as of their transaction dates every month for each of more than 18,500 U.S. ZIP codes. The Black Knight HPI represents the price of non-distressed sales by taking into account price discounts for REO and short sales.” According to the report, Texas, Tennessee, Colorado, and New York all hit new house price peaks in April 2015, and Washington leads the U.S. | more...

June 30, 2015

FHA Home Loans and the Appraisal Process

By Joe Wallace

The appraisal portion of the FHA home loan process is often misunderstood. What exactly IS an FHA appraisal and what is it designed to do? The answers are very important, especially for first-time home buyers. The FHA appraisal process is designed to do two basic things–one is to establish the fair market value of the home you want to purchase with an FHA loan. This is accomplished when an FHA appraiser–who is NOT considered a home INSPECTOR–reviews the home to make sure it meets minimum standards for safety and habitability. The review of the home is also designed so that the appraiser can compare the property to others like it on the market. The appraiser does the review, writes an appraisal report, and submits it to the lender. At no | more...

June 30, 2015

Planning For An FHA Home Loan? Pull Your Credit Reports For Free

By Joe Wallace

If you are in the planning stages before purchasing a new home with an FHA mortgage loan, it’s a very good idea–strongly recommended, in fact–to pull your credit reports from the three major credit reporting agencies. It’s best to request copies of your credit reports as early as possible in the process so that you have abundant time to dispute any outdated information, investigate evidence of identity theft, etc. Many people in this stage go to the official sites for the three major agencies–Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. But did you know that federal law permits borrowers to get a free credit report from these three agencies once every 12 months? According to the Federal Trade Commission official site (https://www.ftc.gov/), anyone who wants the free reports can order them from annualcreditreport.com, | more...

June 25, 2015

FHA Home Loan Rules and Lender Requirements

By Joe Wallace

We get lots of questions about the specifics of FHA home loans. Some of those questions involve areas that may not be covered specifically by FHA loan rules. Among the questions we got recently, there were some about the loan rules that cover a borrower’s employment status. “I got laid off from my contractor job and rehired elsewhere. The lender is asking for another paystub from the current employer in order to move forward with the loan. Is this true?” FHA loan rules may or may not have a say in such cases, but when the lender informs the borrower that X, Y, or Z might be required in order to move forward with the loan, your loan officer may be referring to the lender’s standards and not necessarily FHA | more...

June 20, 2015

FHA Mortgage Loan Interest Rate Trends: Recovering?

By Joe Wallace

It’s been an interesting week for mortgage rates–there was some breath-holding ahead of the Fed announcement that interest rates would not be hiked just yet, and we’re entering a period now where market watchers have labeled 2015 as a time of upward movement for rates in general. But the overall trend this week wound up being downward movement, however small. Rates fell a bit on Friday to end the week, but you’ll notice that a smaller number of lenders are offering the lower best execution 4.0% than those offering 4.125% best execution on 30-year fixed rate conventional mortgages. FHA mortgage loans still haven’t budged out of the best-execution comfort zone of 3.75% for the most qualified borrowers. Remember, best execution rates are not available to all applicants or from all | more...

June 17, 2015

FHA Mortgage Loan Rates: Post-Fed, Moving Lower

By Joe Wallace

It’s been a tricky week for mortgage loan rates in general; rates seemed to be in a “defensive” position ahead of the highly anticipated Fed announcement which happened today–that announcement had major power to influence rates higher or lower depending on the contents of the statement and investor reaction to it. So what happened with rates today? According to several sources, certain markets that influence mortgage rates were weak in the morning, which sent some lenders to adjust their rates accordingly. Once the Fed had made its eagerly awaited announcement, rates began moving back the other way. Why? The Fed could have announced an interest rate hike today, which can and often does (when it occurs) have a negative effect on mortgage rates. But instead, the Fed declared that while | more...

June 13, 2015

FHA Mortgage Loan Interest Rates: Still Near 2015 Highs

By Joe Wallace

We’ve been posting more about home loan interest rate trends as of late–rates have been moving higher in the last few weeks to what some industry professionals term 2015 highs. Next week we are due for an important, and highly anticipated announcement from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) which has the power to influence mortgage loan rates depending on investor reaction to it. The big debate among some market watchers going into next week is whether or not the FOMC announcement WILL affect rates, or if European economic news will overshadow it. We’ve seen behavior like this before–a major, market moving event being overlooked in favor of breaking news from elsewhere. So it’s not entirely clear which way rates could move next week, except that it is reasonable to | more...

June 12, 2015

What You Should Know About FHA Loan Interest Rates

By Joe Wallace

We get many reader questions about interest rates on FHA home loans, and it’s clear from these questions that a misconception still exists–some people believe the FHA sets or regulates the interest rates on FHA single family home loans. This is not true, but in spite of that we get variations on a common type of question that goes something like this: “Should I expect an FHA loan interest rate above XYZ? What kind of interest rate should I be getting?” The truth is that FHA loan interest rates, while lower than the conventional equivalents, is still subject to negotiation between the borrower and the lender. A hypothetical FHA loan interest rate of 3.75% (which is at the time of this writing the “best execution rate” for an FHA loan | more...

June 11, 2015

FHA Mortgage Loan Interest Rate Trends: Moving Lower After Upward Momentum

By Joe Wallace

European economic news has been fueling an upward trend in mortgage loan rates, pushing numbers higher than we’ve seen all year–the highest numbers of 2015 may still be lower than in years past, but the upward trajectory of mortgage loan rates in general has made some wonder where it might end. Did today’s market activity provide an “out” for rates to at least take a breather? On Thursday, rates did stop their upward climb (at least for one day) and pushed back down. 30-year fixed rate conventional mortgage rates had been creeping toward 4.25% as the predominant best-execution rate (out of a range between 4.125% and 4.25%). After today’s downturn the best execution rates are closer to 4.125%. Should a downward trend happen–lower interest rates over a period of days–we | more...

June 6, 2015

FHA Mortgage Interest Rate Trends: Moving Higher

By Joe Wallace

Mortgage loan interest rates have been trending higher as of late, partially due to overseas economic headlines such as the Quantitative Easing situation with the European Central Bank, but also because of local economic data–case in point, the much-anticipated jobs report that came out on Friday. The Employment Situation Report showed positive data, which can and often does have a negative effect on mortgage loan interest rates. This may seem like a contradiction in the eyes of those not used to watching the markets, but a good thing to keep in mind about mortgage loan interest rates is that when there is bad economic news, mortgage loan rates can and often do improve. When there is positive news the opposite can and often does apply. Investor reaction to Friday’s economic | more...