FHA Hikes Limits
If you're a mortgage lender or REALTOR®, homebuyer or homeowner in one of the Northwest's high-cost housing markets - like Seattle, Portland, Boise, Tacoma, Anchorage, Eugene, Olympia, Fairbanks, Corvallis, Vancouver, Juneau, Salem, Bremerton, Sitka or Bend - the recently-enhanced stimulus package - aka, the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 has something very important to you - higher FHA mortgage insurance limits. The higher limits are in effect for loans for which credit is approved in calendar year 2009 and will remain in effect until December 31, 2009. The higher limits give homebuyers a larger inventory of homes from which to choose and give more homeowners in a volatile market the chance to refinance into, says HUD Secretary Donovan, FHA's "safe, affordable mortgage products." To find out if limits in your market have increased, visit https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicostlook.cfm.
The stimulus bill also raised the limit on "reverse" or Home Equity Conversion mortgage from $417,000 to $625,500. Until April 30th, 2009, FHA will allow HECMs that received case number assignments but didn't close prior to the effective date of this mortgagee letter to be closed using either the old limit that was used to originally calculate the loan, or the new limits. Source: HUD HIGHLIGHTS, March 2009. HUD e-Briefs from Alaska, Idaho, Oregon & Washington.
Courtesy Alaska Multiple Listing Service