Articles Tagged With: First-time Home Buyer

April 18, 2024

Mortgage Borrowers At Risk In 2024?

Are FHA mortgages and other types of mortgages riskier in 2024? The answer may be YES thanks to a currently elevated potential for mortgage fraud initiated by scam artists. Fraud prevention company Funding Shield reports high fraud vulnerability in roughly half of all “portfolio loans,” including residential mortgages, in the first three months of 2024. According to HousingWire.com, such problems seem to arise due to a “lack of appropriate controls” related to closing procedures. In some cases, these problems are not related to a residential real estate borrower or seller, but for one specific aspect of the mortgage process, FHA mortgage loan applicants may be at an elevated risk. Wire Fraud Scams And Your Mortgage The Funding Shield report includes data about closing cost-related wire fraud vulnerabilities. Those potential problems | more...

April 3, 2024

First-Time Home Buyer Tools You Should Know

By Joe Wallace

Are you buying a home for the first time? Are you buying a home after a long gap in home ownership? There are some consumer tools you should know about that can help you get closer to owning your dream home. Not all these tools are for the loan planning and saving stages. For example, when house hunting, if you find a home you want, do you know how much your monthly mortgage payment will be? You can use online mortgage calculators to help. But that’s a common mortgage tool–what about other options? Credit Issues Borrowers who need to work on their credit might be surprised to learn that they can repair their own credit AND get advice on improving credit on a do-it-yourself basis. Do you know the three | more...

April 1, 2024

Home Loans In 2024: The First Quarter

By Joe Wallace

The first quarter of 2024 was a positive one for some house hunters. But many are wondering if rates will get closer to the mid to lower 6% range soon and whether to wait until that happens to start planning for a new FHA mortgage. A CNBC news report on mortgages published in the first quarter says there was higher demand in first three months of 2024. Higher demand potentially means higher sale prices, but not always. This year, it’s likely that is one of many contributing factors to the current rate environment. Did the supply rise to meet demand in Q1? CNBC notes that inventory went up nearly 6% overall. That meant as many as a million houses were for sale at the end of February. Home Sales Up | more...

March 27, 2024

Buying A Home With An FHA Loan After A Deed-In-Lieu Of Foreclosre

By Joe Wallace

If you experienced trouble with a past home loan and made arrangements to surrender the deed of the home in lieu of foreclosure, it is easy to understand why you might assume you wouldn’t be eligible for another home loan. There is GOOD NEWS on this front, however. This assumption is not true. You CAN become eligible for a new FHA mortgage once you meet certain requirements. What do FHA loan rules in HUD 4000.1 say about getting a new FHA mortgage following a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure? We get many questions about issues like these. One variation on a common FHA home loan question goes like this; “I completed a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure a few months ago. According to the government guidelines, how long do I have to wait before I | more...

March 26, 2024

FHA And HUD Offer Foreclosure Avoidance Option

By Joe Wallace

In late February 2024, the FHA announced a new home retention option for borrowers with FHA single-family home loans who may experience financial trouble along the way. The FHA Payment Supplement Program Is An Important Option The FHA Payment Supplement allows participating FHA lenders to temporarily alter the terms of the FHA loan to lower monthly payments without changing the home loan interest rate. This adjustment is not permanent but is designed to help borrowers avoid foreclosure during financial difficulties. FHA lenders working with borrowers in financial trouble now can lower the FHA mortgage payment by as much as 25%. That is meant as a temporary reduction designed to help those who can’t keep up with payments and have an FHA loan with an interest rate lower than current rates. | more...

March 25, 2024

Housing Market Recovery Predictions

By Joe Wallace

Q1, also known as the first quarter of the year, is ending, and market watchers are reassessing some of their earlier housing market recovery predictions. As Q1 2024 ends, some at Fannie Mae are saying yes, the rates are recovering, but they are moving more slowly than some would like. At the time of this writing home loans with 30-year fixed rates are at approximately 6.87%. That feels closer to the 7% range than some would like, but the rates do seem to be moving lower. Multiple factors contribute to the slower-than-hoped-for rate recovery, but none of them indicate that we will experience a shock return of much higher rates. Fannie Mae has gone on the record with a. revised mortgage rate outlook for 2024. The agency now says rates | more...

March 20, 2024

What To Know About FHA Loans And Escrow

By Joe Wallace

FHA loans typically involve some form of escrow. Some FHA loans have different escrow requirements than others and you should know what your specific loan type will require before you commit. What Is Escrow? Finance blogs often describe escrow as an arrangement where a third-party account retains money to facilitate a home loan. It’s done on behalf of the borrower and lender and money comes out of the account based on specific conditions or instructions. You can expect to use escrow to pay for property taxes, paying contractors for labor or materials, and even earnest money if you and the lender agree. Escrow provides a layer of protection for both borrower and lender and it pays to know as much as you can about how it works before you commit | more...

March 19, 2024

First-Time Home Buyers May Benefit From Proposed Tax Credit

By Joe Wallace

A new mortgage tax credit proposal from the Biden administration could make buying a home more affordable for first-time home buyers. The President’s proposal includes a credit potentially worth up to $10k per homeowner for qualifying transactions. If the plan is approved, those buying starter homes and/or first-time home buyers could get into a more affordable mortgage. Why Now? According to RedFin, 2023 was the least affordable year to try to purchase a house. In 2023, those making approximately $78,000 “would have spent 41.4% of earnings by purchasing a median-price home at $408,806, up from 38.7% in 2022” according to a report by RedFin. And many American homeowners today pay on loans with mortgage interest rates lower than those currently available for purchase or refinance. That would tend to make | more...

March 14, 2024

Is It Time To Buy A Home With An FHA Mortgage?

By Bruce Reichstein

Some borrowers are not sure if they are truly ready to buy a house with an FHA mortgage. Not in the financial sense. For this article, we do not mean “ready” in the sense that a borrower has saved a down payment, worked hard on credit, and has a budget plan that includes the new mortgage payment. In this article, being “ready” means deciding to stop renting and start owning a home. Running The Numbers Before You Shop Get a calculator ready if you need to answer the rent-versus-own question. Compare the current rental options with the cost of owning. Ask yourself, how much is your rent? What about renter’s insurance, monthly utility expenses, and other costs like parking and trash removal? How does that amount compare to the costs | more...

March 13, 2024

Home Loan Mortgage Insurance Requirements

By Joe Wallace

When it is time to buy a new home, borrowers have important decisions to make about mortgage insurance. Do you know who is required to pay for mortgage insurance and why? There are home loan programs that offer the option of paying 20% down and sidestepping the lender’s mortgage insurance requirements. Other mortgage loans may require borrowers to come up with a larger down payment to take advantage of the option to stop paying mortgage insurance after 11 years. Some mortgages have no insurance guidelines in this area at all. We examine these programs below. What To Know About Conventional Loan Mortgage Insurance There is no national standard for conventional loan mortgage insurance in terms of lender requirements. Borrowers can expect to pay 20% down on a conventional loan to avoid | more...