Financing options for mixed-use properties have greatly expanded thanks to a change in a long-standing FHA rule limiting FHA Section 203(b) mortgage insurance to properties that have non-residential portions exceeding 25% of the total floor area. Up until September 14, 2015, a prospective borrower was able to utilize FHA Section 203(b) financing to purchase a mixed-use property under certain conditions.…
And so it begins. Which credit score to use to provide the best profile of a potential borrower? Is it FICO, FICO Stage9 or, maybe, the new VantageScore? (Credit Scoring) For the past several years, the industry has mainly relied on the good old three digit FICO score. Some say that is no longer the most representative of a consumer’s…
President Obama gave his last State of the Union address on last evening, 1/12/2015. Unfortunately, for those of us in the housing and mortgage lending industry he did not address or even mention anything about a housing policy targeted to help more Americans realize their dream of homeownership (Speech). A dream that has been dealt a severe blow resulting from…
While most of the mortgage lending world is still concentrating on TRID, some are looking for ways to do more business, and do it better. Angel Oak Capital Advisors has recently announced that it had closed a $150 million securitization of nonprime loans. -Loans that didn’t fit into the neat QM conventional loan world (Sub-Prime Pool)-. Could this be the…
We finally experienced the long anticipated short-term interest rate hike by the Fed. Now, what happens? There are all kinds of speculation. Some say it will help while others say it might hurt. When might the fed do it again? Much depends on how the economy reacts. We shall see. The stock market sure liked it, at first, now it’s…
Freddie Mac has modified some of its long-standing underwriting policies that should help reduce the paperwork burden for lenders in qualifying prospective borrowers, in their Guide Bulletin 2015-20, dated December 2, 2015. Outlined below is a summary of each of these changes: Borrower Funds/Reserves – if a borrower’s combined value of assets derived from stocks, bonds, mutual funds, US Government…
