Articles in Category: HUD Regulations

April 14, 2019

HUD Announces Findings In Illinois Housing Fraud Investigation

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced its’ findings related to the investigation of allegations of housing fraud by a Cook County couple. According to a press release by HUD, “… a Cook County, Illinois couple committed fraud by accepting housing assistance they were not qualified to receive in order to rent a property they jointly owned.” HUD had conducted an investigation into a married couple’s attempts to get rental assistance for a property they own in Matteson, Illinois. HUD alleges that in 2006 the couple, Korey Sloan and Christie Caldwell, and their four children “sought rental assistance from the Housing Authority of Cook County (HACC) to lease the home from Sloan, who posed as an unrelated landlord”. HUD further states that Caldwell “denied any relationship” with Sloan | more...

April 4, 2019

What You Need To Know About FHA Home Loan Credit Checks

By Joe Wallace

What do first-time home buyers need to understand about the credit check process for getting an FHA mortgage? What you don’t know can hurt you in the journey toward buying that first piece of real estate. Before you begin working with a realtor, you should know several things about the credit check process. FHA Home Loan Credit Check Rules Your lender is required to pull your credit reports in order to approve or deny the mortgage. Your lender will review the following: Payment history Credit limits and how close the borrower is to those limits Overall patterns of credit use Date of the last late or missed payments where applicable FICO scores What Else The Lender Is Looking For Credit scores are not the only thing the lender is interest | more...

HUD Announces Disaster Relief For Iowa and Nebraska Storm Victims

April 1, 2019

HUD Charges Facebook With Fair Housing Act Violations

By Bruce Reichstein

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has brought charges of Fair Housing Act violations against Facebook. HUD announced it would charge Facebook “with violating the Fair Housing Act by encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination through the company’s advertising platform.” HUD’s case claims that Facebook illegally restricted “who can view housing-related ads on Facebook’s platforms and across the internet” and also that the media giant “mines extensive data about its users and then uses those data to determine which of its users view housing-related ads based, in part, on these protected characteristics” according to a press release issued by HUD. There’s more; the HUD press release also mentions a HUD claim that additionally, “Facebook combines data it collects about user attributes and behavior with data it obtains about user | more...

March 20, 2019

Home Loan Rules You Should Know

By Bruce Reichstein

What home loan rules should you know ahead of your mortgage loan application? There are several that you should keep in mind when planning and applying for your new home loan. FHA Loans Are Issued By Participating Lenders A lender must meet FHA standards, conform to the FHA loan program rules, and generally be recognized by the FHA as being permitted to issue FHA-guaranteed mortgage loans. But not all lenders choose to participate in the FHA home loan program so you may need to shop around for a lender. Shopping around is a good thing, but some feel that one lender is as good as another. When it’s time to compare interest rates and mortgage loan terms, you may find that to be untrue. But not all lenders choose to | more...

March 12, 2019

Why You Could Buy A First Home With An FHA Mortgage

By Joe Wallace

First-time home buyers may not realize the full value of some FHA home loan features, but once you’ve had a bit of experience with real estate and related issues, the FHA loan features that look good to you will do so for important reasons. FHA home loans have several strengths for those looking for a first home. Do you know what they are? FHA mortgages allow down payment gifts from approved sources. Your family, friends, co-workers, or agencies with no financial stake in the outcome of the transaction may provide genuine gifts of down payment money. The seller of the real estate you want to buy can not contribute toward your down payment. But you CAN negotiate with the seller to get up to six percent of the home’s sale | more...

March 7, 2019

HUD Announces Housing Discrimination Settlement With Los Angeles County Housing Providers

By Bruce Reichstein

Housing discrimination affects home buyers at every stage of the real estate buying process including those who are in the planning stages of buying a first home and who need an apartment to live in while on the road to becoming a new home owner. HUD has announced a settlement in a Fair Housing Act discrimination case brought against the owners of a Los Angeles County company running a development in Duarte, California. In this case the complaint centers around a housing complex; according to the HUD official site, “The agreement resolves allegations that Downs, LLC and EMNA Management, Inc., the owner and manager of the development, refused to remediate mold at the property as a reasonable accommodation for a couple with disabilities and retaliated against them for asking that | more...

March 6, 2019

FHA Home Loan Options For First-Time Home Buyers

By Joe Wallace

When some people think about buying a first home, the stereotypical image of a suburban house may come to mind, but that isn’t the only option you have when searching for just the right real estate for your needs. Your participating FHA lender and real estate agents alike will tell you about a variety of housing types and configurations that go above and beyond a typical two-bedroom bungalow, ranch home, split-level home, etc. What other kinds of homes can you purchase with an FHA mortgage? There are FHA home loans for manufactured or modular homes that can be assembled and put on a permanent foundation on land the borrower either already owns or is purchasing as part of the FHA mortgage loan. FHA loans for mobile homes are similar, though | more...

January 28, 2019

FHA Loans And The Government Shutdown: What’s Next?

By Bruce Reichstein

Headlines in the earliest part of 2019 about the government shutdown gave way at the end of the third full week to those discussing the interim re-opening of the government for three weeks so that negotiations on the federal budget may continue. On Friday, January 5, 2019, the partial shutdown ended, bringing furloughed workers back on the job and ending the question of how long nearly one million American workers would have to do without a paycheck. What does all this have to do with FHA mortgage loans? Many wondered if the FHA would stop the home loan program during the partial shutdown, and while that did not happen, some aspects of the FHA mortgage program were affected including the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program and certain aspsects of the | more...

January 7, 2019

FHA Loans And The 2019 Government Shutdown

By Bruce Reichstein

At the time of this writing, the partial government shutdown continues and we are seeing more headlines about the services affected, including certain kinds of home loans. Specifically, home loan applicants seeking USDA mortgages are locked out of the process for the duration of the shutdown according to a variety of sources. Some potential USDA borrowers were caught in the middle of their transactions when the government shut down, and the media reports stories of those left more or less in limbo until the current situation is resolved. So what does this mean for FHA mortgage loans? FHA Mortgage Loans Are Still Available During The Government Shutdown Forward mortgages will continue to be serviced during the shutdown as previously reported here and elsewhere. But there are some important things you | more...

December 29, 2018

FHA Loans Are Available During The Government Shutdown

By Joe Wallace

Are FHA home loans available during the government shutdown? The answer is yes in many cases, with the exception of Reverse Mortgages and Title I loans. FHA Condo loans may be affected by the government shutdown depending on whether or not the condo project was on the FHA approved list prior to the shutdown or not. The FHA and HUD official sites have notices stating that the websites will not be updated until the government reopens, and many functions of the FHA and HUD will be limited or unavailable. According to HUD.gov, there are a list of guidelines you should know during this time that will affect how FHA loans are handled. The official site states that HECM loans and Title I loans cannot be endorsed during the shutdown: “The | more...