The FHA Training Manual used for mortgage loan officer training by industry leaders such as National Association of Mortgage Brokers and hundreds of other companies! This FHA Training Package includes a 380+ page manual, an FHA Refinance Guide, an interactive CD and Free Updates. Read more!
At least they don’t do so in any way which stands much chance of meaningful success in the the real world. Here is the direct quote from HUD Secretary Sean Donovan’s May 29, 2009 press release: “Home buyers using FHA-approved lenders can apply the tax credit to their down payment in excess of 3.5 percent of appraised value or their closing costs, which can help achieve a lower interest rate.” (emphasis added)
Just a short update to make sure the latest information is available on the site – even though what I’m about to tell you isn’t really “information” yet in my view!
According to a report in Realtor Magazine, HUD spokesman Lemar Wooley has stated that the proposal is still on track. As I suspected from the fact that the original Mortgagee Letter 09-15 was fairly fuzzy on the details, it appears they just got a little ahead of themselves.
Sorry to be a little late with this update, but I’ve been trying for several days to figure out the real scoop on exactly what happened. For the first time that I can ever remember, FHA actually published a mortgagee letter on their website and then just removed it.
Usually the process of revoking a Mortgagee Letter would involve issuing another Mortgagee Letter with updated rules. Looks like someone at HUD may have gotten ahead of themselves!
Here are the full details on how the monetization of the $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit will work for FHA loans. You can obtain the full HUD Mortgagee Letter 2009-15 here.
I have been receiving emails and even phone calls asking for the location of the HUD Mortgagee Letter about this all morning so I thought I needed to go ahead and post the details that I have. [Details are now available here]
The seller assisted non-profit down payment assistance programs are officially gone for FHA loans as of October 1st 2008. These programs were easy to use and could be funded quickly and thus became extremely popular.
But they aren’t the only game in town.
There are literally thousands of federal, state, county, local and charity based grant programs available all over the country. During the last few real estate boom years, sellers had no patience with waiting while potential buyers jumped through all the hoops necessary to qualify for these programs, but times are different now. Those sellers who once had no patience have now had their home for sale by owner, listed and expired with 3 different real estate agents and on the market for over a year. They will jump at any buyer they can get and do whatever they can to help sell that buyer their home. They will now wait 45 days for a buyer to get qualified for down payment grants.
Although there is a chance that legislation will bring seller assisted down payment gift programs back before the end of the year, the non profit DPA programs are officially dead as of October 1, 2008.
Mortgage applications have dropped precipitously over the last few weeks for other reasons, so it will be interesting to watch how the ban will affect home sales if it lasts very long. Although we do need to let the air out of this real estate/credit bubble, watching people hurt financially due to all this uncertainty in the mortgage market is painful for everyone.
