Oregon Mortgages

New FHA Bill Passes the House

I’m sure many of you are aware of what is going on via the media (who I dislike because they only report bad press for the Mortgage world) but they have done a decent job of keeping the consumers up to date about some topics. Well Bill H.R. 1852 has passed the house but still needs to make it through the senate and Mr. President Bush before it will be put into law and Mr. Bush was a little critical of the bill until some changes had been made. I’m sure we’ll see more changes to it before it passes all the way through. It does have some ideas in it that I feel will help out a bit.

Bill H.R. 1852

• Raises FHA loan limit from 87% to 100% of the conforming loan limit in High Cost Areas (Think Boston, LA, San Fran.) which is currently set at $417,000 in high cost areas
• Raises FHA loan limits from 48% to 65% of the conforming loan limit in areas not designated high cost. This would move the limit from $200,160 to $271,050
• Removes limitations on the FHA on the number of Reverse Mortgages it insures, they are currently limited to insuring 275,000 reverse mortgages (they are at that limit)
• Portion that was raising the portfolio limits for Freddie and Fannie was taken out
• Prohibits the FHA from increasing mortgage insurance fees under most circumstances
• Authorizes HUD to offer incentives to borrowers after on time payments for 3 years & 5 years