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Mortgage Approvals Are Getting More And More Scarce

Reblogger Tean Wong
Real Estate Agent with Centre Realty Group

The economy's improving but lending standards are not. Nationally, banks are making mortgage approvals harder to come by.

Underwriting guidelines are tightening.

The data comes from the Federal Reserve's quarterly survey to its member banks.  The Fed asks senior bank loan officers around the country to report on "prime" residential mortgage guidelines over the most recent 3 months and whether they've tightened.

For the period October-December 2009:

  • Roughly 1 in 4 banks said guidelines tightened
  • Roughly 3 in 4 banks said guidelines were "basically unchanged"

Just 2 of 53 banks said its guidelines had loosened.

Combine the Fed's survey with recent underwriting updates from the FHA and generally tougher standards for conventional loans and it's clear that....

 

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Chris is Florida's #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the three leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, the newest contributor to Lenderama and recently featured on Fox35 News.

Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

The FHA Mortgage Broker

that FHA Mortgage Pros go to

when they need an FHA Mortgage Lender.

Orlando FHA Loans | MortgageChiliBlog.com.

 

 

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TEAN WONG

Real Estate Agent

Centre Realty Group

617.417.4230

tean@teanwong.com

www.teanwong.com

Servicing Boston, Brookline, Newton, Cambridge, Watertown, Belmont, Arlington and Lexington.

 

Comments(2)

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Robert Rauf
CMG Home Loans - Toms River, NJ

Tean, Keep in mind that is still not Hard to get a loan, We were just able to do some dumb stuff a few years ago.  Simple recipe to get approved: Pay your bills on time, Have a job, Not too much debt, and have a small down payment!

There are also a few great no money down programs that are availble, USDA - but that probably wont work in Boston... and VA

And FHA is still only  3.5% down, and that can be all gift money.  Reality is that it is not much different than it was in the late 80's and early 1990's, the guidelines are very similar back then to where they are now.

Feb 15, 2010 05:20 AM
Cari Anderson
Danville, CA

I second Robert's opinion.  Provided you have the ability to do (and have ie job) what Robert states above there is product available.  Affordability is excellent with respect to both prices coupled with extremely low rates.  When housing fully stabilizes, and the economy recovers and actually produces jobs, there will be a larger buying pool as well as a little less restrictive underwriting than we have now.  But probably not too much less! ~Doug

Feb 15, 2010 05:28 AM