
USDA issued Administrative Notice 4551 on February 24, 2011 that alluded to this upcoming change. The change has been confirmed in an email that also included instructions on how to calculate the fee.
Following in the footsteps of what the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) did back in October of 2010, USDA will be lowering the up-front guarantee fee. FHA lowered their fee from 2.25% to 1%. USDA will be lowering their up-front guarantee fee from 3.5% back down to the 2%. That’s a nice change! Click here to read my post about FHA making a similar change.
THE BIG CHANGE!
However, the other change is that it will now require a 0.3% annual mortgage insurance fee. While this fee is an annual fee, it is collected monthly in escrow like most mortgage insurance payments. In it’s basic form, on a $100,000 loan the calculation would be like this:
100,000 X 0.3% = $300 annual fee
$300 annual fee / 12 mo = $25/mo
Here’s a look at an example of a $100,000 of how it is currently and how it will change come October 1, 2011. Keep reading below for a look at the comparison of how a loan will look now vs. after Oct 1, 2011.

Here is a look at how it will affect borrower's come October 1, 2011.
Assumptions: $100,000 purchase price with $0 down payment. 5% 30 year Fixed Rate. No monthly escrows for property taxes, homeowner’s insurance and/or HOA’s are included.
NOTE: Before someone picks apart my calculation of the guarantee fee, and total loan amount, and annual MI calculations, this is simplified just to show the basic differences.
Assumptions: $100,000 purchase price with $0 down payment. 5% 30 year Fixed Rate. No monthly escrows for property taxes, homeowner’s insurance and/or HOA’s are included.
NOTE: Before someone picks apart my calculation of the guarantee fee, and total loan amount, and annual MI calculations, this is simplified just to show the basic differences.
Current - Sep 30, 2011 |
On or after Oct 1, 2011 |
Up-front Guarantee fee = 3.5% $100,000 base loan x 3.5% fee Total Loan Amt = $103,500 P&I Pmt = $555.61 Total Payment: $555.61 Total Fees collected by USDA: |
Up-front Guarantee fee = 2.0% $100,000 base loan x 2.0% fee Total Loan Amt = $102,000 P&I Pmt = $547.56 Total Payment: Total Fees collected by USDA: |
It’s fairly clear that USDA Rural Development is hopefully taking strides to make itself self-sufficient where it doesn’t have to rely on funding from the federal government each year. October 1, 2011 will begin a new fiscal year.
This change will affect any new USDA loans where the conditional commitment is issued on or after October 1, 2011.
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