2014 Conventional & FHA Loan Limits

Sure thing Gita, thank you for commenting

Pamela - hopefully the impact won't be too bad, guess we'll find out.  Thanks for stopping by.

Jared - definitely helps to know what's coming.  Thanks for the comment.

Ralph - thanks for the comment & I agree, I try to keep on top of what's coming as much as possible.

Jeff -thank you for reading & leaving a comment.  Hope it helps with next years planning.

Joan - the reduction will leave loan limits a little higher than pre-stimulus levels, and it's definitely a combination of factors (the loan limit increase was designed to be temporary help) - I don't think HUD anticipated such large losses - they just got a $1.7billion bailout this year, so the only option was to increase cost or limit exposure - since they already raised PMI costs so much, the only real option left without completely pricing out the FHA product was to reduce loan limits.  Since PMI is sky-high now, I don't think many people will miss the high balance FHA loan but I'm sure it'll exclude a few potential buyers....hopefully not too many.  I think with values just now stabilizing some nationwide and the great uncertainty with QM coming into play, I don't think we're quite 'normalized' yet - we won't see a truly normal market until the Fed stops pumping dollars out with QE.

Laura - thanks for the comment!

Aaron - absolutely agree, maybe we'll see a pmi reduction too so they can really get back to helping the underserved (we can all dream, right?)

Cheryl - it varies by county, so depending on where you are it may be uniform for a large area or have several different limits if lots of counties are nearby.

Ed  - thank you!  On the conforming side I also think it's great news, I wasn't happy to see them consider reducing the max amounts.

Sharon - unfortunately that kind of result will be likely in many places.  While the high balance program isn't necessarily used often, lowering the limits across the board I don't think was a great idea.

Joe - I did see that NAR had significant input- I'm happy that they go to bat for the industry so often, especially since in the lending community we can't get our act together on capitol hill.

Bill - I hope you don't see any effect.  I can only foresee it being an issue with rising values in some areas, could make it tough for anyone with less than 5% down.

Joan - that's one of the more drastic decreases as is being seen across the high balance spectrum.  Since FHA is designed to help lower-income folks, it makes sense, but I think the timing was poor since the market is still somewhat fragile.

Paul - thanks for the comment, I don't think high balance will see much effect but dropping the limits at the lower levels could hurt in areas with rising values.

Jeffrey - thanks for stopping by, hopefully the effects won't be too bad across the country - folks will just have to save a little more prior to purchasing in some areas.

Suzanne - thanks for commenting, and I do agree to an extent.  I think lowering the high balance limits would've been ok, but cutting the limits across the board I think was done with poor timing - should've given it another year in my opinion.

Kevin, that is a tough break, hopefully it won't prevent too many buyers from entering the marketplace.  Thanks for the comment!