October 21, 2015
We’ve written a great deal lately about the new FHA Single Family Home Loan policy handbook, HUD 4000.1. Since this was launched, it became the comprehensive reference for FHA loan policy for single family mortgages, refinances, etc.
The old FHA loan rulebooks including HUD 4155.1 and HUD 4155.2 are still discoverable on the Internet and on the FHA/HUD official site, but they are included there for reference only and should not be taken as current FHA single family loan policy.
But even with that in mind, one FHA/HUD practice that was active under the era of the previous policies and handbooks still remains–the FHA and HUD are still updating single family home loan policy (and others as appropriate) with FHA Mortgagee Letters (ML).
While the FHA/HUD did publish a list of MLs that were either superseded or altered by the publication of HUD 4000.1, new FHA mortgagee letters are still being published.
They can and do update or revise existing policy, so if you might be affected by the contents of a new mortgagee letter (depending on the issue and changes in FHA policy related to that issue), it’s best to have a look at the FHA/HUD mortgagee letter section of the official site:
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/administration/hudclips/letters/mortgagee
There is a list of the most current mortgagee letters at the link above, and there’s also an archive of past MLs, too. Many of these may have expired, and a selection of them were superseded by HUD 4000.1, so it’s best to read this portion of the FHA official site very carefully to insure whether the information you’re accessing is for archival purposes only or ongoing policy.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It’s designed especially for real estate websites–a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those websites.
It is easy 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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