GA Home Buyers May get an Extension on the Federal Tax Credit
Today the Senate passed a bill 60-37 to extend the tax credit for first time home buyers from June 30, 2010 to September 30, 2010. This is only for home buyers that went under contract on or before April 30, 2010. Many lenders and people in Congress feel this is necessary due to the amount [...]
Cost for GA Home Loans Going Up
On May 12, 2010 Georgia’s Governor Sonny Purdue signed a bill raising the Georgia per loan fee from $6.50 to $10.00. This fee will be collected by Georgia mortgage lenders and bankers and is remitted to Georgia’s Department of Banking and finance for each residential mortgage closed in Georgia. Although the $3.50 is not a [...]
Tax Credit is Extended for some Georgia Home Buyers
As most people in the real estate industry are aware, the first-time homebuyer and move-up tax credit expired on April 30th, 2010. What most people don’t know, it was extended for certain federal and military personnel. If you were in the military or are a federal employee that was serving outside the United States from [...]
USDA and Flood Insurance, Problems for GA Homeowners
The two most important issues facing Georgia home loans right now are USDA rural development and flood insurance. USDA loans have become wildly popular in the last two years due to the fact it is one of the only 100% loan programs left. In the middle of March USDA announced that they anticipate running out [...]
USDA Rural Development is Running out of Money
On March 9, 2010 we received a letter from USDA Rural Development stating that they anticipate running out of funds by the end of April 2010. If your USDA loan is in processing or you are looking for a home and plan on using USDA, this can be frightening news. It is actually quite common [...]
Financing Condo’s in Georgia is Getting Tougher
On February 1st a new FHA ruling took effect regarding condos. A Condominium has to be approved by FHA in order to allow for FHA Insurability. There is a list that lenders check to see if condo project is approved. If the project is not approved, lenders would try to get a “spot approval,” so [...]
Changes Coming to GA FHA Loans
On January 2oth, FHA announced they will be making some changes in the upcoming months. They are looking to strengthen FHA’s capital reserves, which have diminished over the past several years due to the high number of foreclosures. They plan to make changes in 4 different areas:
Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP) will be increased from 1.75% [...]
Foreclosure vs. Short Sale in Georgia
There are many different factors to consider when you are facing the unfortunate decision of choosing between a foreclosure and a short sale. You have to not only look at how your decision will affect you now, but how it will affect you in the future as well. As far as a conventional mortgage goes, [...]
Underwriting Changes that will affect your GA Mortgage
A quick background: When we obtain an approval for clients on a conventional, conforming loan we run their scenario through an automated underwriting system put in place by Fannie Mae. Since Fannie Mae buys many of the loans in the secondary market almost all lenders, banks, etc. use their underwriting guidelines as the standard by [...]
New Revised Home Buyer Tax Credit
Recently Congress extended and expanded the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers. The tax credit will be extended until April 30th, 2010. The purchaser has to go under contract by April 30th and close before July 1st, 2010. The income limits have also changed from $75,000 for a single filer, [...]
