Ok, here's the deal. My business man brain is telling me to look at this question and give you a bunch of dry answers about how you can buy a house for little or no money down and what the upcoming conforming and FHA loan limit increase means to you.
That isn't really the way I want to write this. Hey! It's my article; I am going to write it the way I want to. Just to get it out of the way, here is the business man part:
You can still buy a home for little or no money down! I have 5 different loan programs and several different down payment assistance programs available to help you get in to a home for ZERO to 2% down. YES! This article is being written on February 8th, 2008 and that is still a true statement.
That is really great but here is the really good part. ALL of these programs require that you document your income and fully qualify. In other words lenders are going to check and make sure that you will be able to repay the loan and have money left over to live life as well. Wow, that's different! In the past 7 to 9 years, we have not really had to bother with qualifying people. I am joking a little bit but loan programs got pretty loose for a while.
Just a note here: As a mortgage broker who operates from a place of honesty and integrity, I always wanted to make sure that my clients understood the loan program they were getting and I had to know that they could actually make the payments fit into their lifestyle. I might have made a few less dollars in the last few years but I can sleep at night and I have pretty loyal clients.
Yeah, yeah Hans, back to the article. OK, so you need to be poor enough to qualify for the special loan program and still make enough money to qualify. Right now, that means that you need to be looking at homes at around $417,000 or less to make this work.
We have just gotten the economic stimulus package passed (HR 5140) and President Bush is expected to sign it into law by February 14th, 2008 and it will raise conforming and conventional loans to as much as $729,750 in high cost areas. The formula is that they will lend up to 125% of the median home price (which HUD needs to determine). My guess is that Sonoma County will go up to anywhere from $620,000 to as high as the max $729,750.....
So what this means is that the programs I described above will work a whole lot better in Sonoma County. You still need to qualify for the loans so the high loan to value first time buyer programs won't offer a whole lot more than they do now for most people.
The new loan limits will open up doors for people who need a larger loan amount and it will make refinances possible for some folks who just could not get a loan in the last few months for 1 reason or another.
I have started a video blog to deal with these issues in 2 to 3 minute YouTube style videos that are designed to get the information to consumers in a nice easy way. Just go to http://www.hansblog.com/ to see what I am talking about. I have enjoyed writing these articles but I am really enjoying making and distributing the videos. Since I can make a video and post it the same day, it is extremely relevant.
So, the question isn't how much can I get and how cheap will it be? The real question is can I buy a house that fits my needs and my budget? Talk to a mortgage professional that you can trust and find out.
Comments(3)