Jose writes and says:
“We bought our home three years ago at $450,000 here in California, and it has devalued to $360,000. Our interest-only is up in another year and a half, I feel we are screwed!! We called a lender for FHA loan, read more
Tom Lawler writes and says that down payment assistance programs should be banned under the FHA program. He makes these points:
“1. Why should the FHA “require” a 3% down payment, but then let the seller “pay” the down payment by hiking the home price by 3% — effectively meaning that read more
Late Monday afternoon the Senate voted 76 to 10 to invoke cloture, effectively meaning an end to debate regarding the proposed FHA modernization bill.
The cloture vote moves the Senate closer to final consideration of FHA reform, perhaps Tuesday.
Also on the schedule for read more
Once again, HUD has redefined the FHASecure program to assure that few borrowers facing for foreclosure will actually have access to the program.
As HUD explains, “FHA has not changed its underwriting guidelines, but rather its eligibility criteria.”
Right. As the lawyers say, this is a distinction without a difference.
Forget about saving families from read more
Each year on July 4th it’s great to look around and see how fortunate we are to live in the U.S.
Those who have traveled overseas understand the astonishing wealth of a society which allows people to have differing ideas, to debate and argue without fear or punishment, to worship as we elect, to read more
If you financed a home with an FHA loan and held it long enough, the odds are good that you have a lot of equity. For many borrowers the way to access the value within a home is to take out a home equity line of credit, a HELOC.
In recent months, however, a number read more
Tom Lawler, discussing down payment assistance programs (DPA’s), says that “if a seller artificially inflates a home’s sales price, but then gives the buyer some “cash back” under the table for a “down payment” on that buyer’s mortgage, it is read more
Peter G. Miller is a syndicated real estate and personal finance columnist who appears in more than 100 newspapers nationwide. His columns for Realty Times are carried by thousands of websites. Author of The Common Sense Mortgage -- a book with unit sales well into six figures -- Mr. Miller has been featured on such media outlets as Oprah, The Today Show, NPR and CNN.
Mr. Miller's work also appears on such sites as RealtyTrac and Mortgage Lenders Plus, and he has been a long-time columnist with the leading magazine for real estate brokers, the Real Estate Professional.
Heindrick So is a mortgage consultant at a local Bay Area Real Estate Brokerage - specializing in residential wholesale lending.
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