It has the same effect here in Norther New Jersey.

In most of Union County, and Morris County New Jersey you cannot buy a first time home buyer house for less than 500K.  Bush needs to pull his head out of his A$$ and start learning a few things beyond 5th grade level.

James Boyer

Realtor Associate

Keller Williams Real Estate

Summit, NJ 07901

Bush needs new advisors.

I think there's a motivation in the White House to keep FHA in its place.  Republican presidents are typically not big fans of FHA anyway.  They view it as some sort of socialistic "pork-barrel" program from the New Deal era.

The minuscule increase the Bush administration is proposing won't do anybody much good.  It's a waste of time and taxpayer dollars to pass a bill that contains only token increases in FHA loan limits.

James - LOL!

Roberta - It sure looks that way.

Hi Eric - Thanks for posting. That token difference between $417,000 and $500,000 is just shy of 20%. That's pretty significant in the finance world. What's the median price where you are?

Michael, my primary office is in Minnetonka, Minnesota and the median price here is around $300,000, considerably lower than in your area!

The administration's push to transform the FHA into an ATM

I feel it should be based on median/average prices.  Our FHA limit hovers just above.  It gives an unfair advantage for those that have limits WELL above and hinders those that are WELL below.  Face it, cost of living is different all around this country.  Wouldn't hurt to factor in cost of living and wages also.

"Low cost $500,000 loan" seems kind of ironic to me...

Perhaps prices would come down to a realistic level if the buyer pool shrunk in high priced areas.  It would suck for those that had high priced homes that declined, but should the property prices be propped up by lower cost government backed financing? 

Lane - I'm sure we can agree that "Low Cost" is relative. $350,000 may score you a really beat up foreclosure in my neck of the woods that wouldn't qualify for FHA (based on past guidelines).

It was the Fed's dropped the funds rate to 1% which prompted the boom due to cheap credit. Which in my view was a complete over reaction to 9/11. Lack of Fed oversight allowed Wall Street to fund Trillions of dollars in sub-prime risk during that period. I do feel the Fed has to shoulder some responsibility for their actions and lack thereof. And if it means lower cost government financing, so be it. Do you think it's fair to open the flood gates then shut off the equity nozzle and allow millions of families to loose everything?

Bush is nothing but pain for this nation!!!!

Arina...LOL! Unfortunately I can't "go" there. But thanks for posting!