The Return of PMI
Posted On: March 23rd, 2010 by James Posted In: FHA Mortgage • Mortgage Insurance • Mortgage Programs • Portland Real Estate
OK, so this is kind of exciting for all mortgage, real estate and general economic nerds. There are now not one but TWO private mortgage insurance (also known as PMI) companies who have taken Portland off their “declining markets” list!! The companies are PMI, and MGIC…. “James”, you ask… “why should I care about that?”. Well, I’m glad you asked. What it means is that buying real estate with less than 10% down just got a little more interesting.
Borrowers with top credit will now have options to buy with only a 5% down payment, and private mortgage insurance. This has not really been an option in the last 18 months, and these borrowers were all being pointed to FHA loans. And come April 5th, FHA loans are about to get more expensive as that FHA mortgage insurance is scheduled to INCREASE.
Continue Reading – The Return of PMI
New FHA Rules! (How Does This Affect Portland?)
Posted On: January 20th, 2010 by James Posted In: Government Actions • Mortgage Insurance • Mortgage Programs • Portland Real Estate
I’ve been hearing rumors about the FHA needing to increase its cash position and lower their risk profile for about a year now. I heard rumors that the down payment would increase from 3.5% to 5% down. All of these things make sense because the FHA is just being pushed beyond the brink of fiscal sanity right now. Now that the subprime mortgage universe has been sucked into a black hole, the only “low down payment” mortgage option, or “relaxed credit” mortgage option for borrowers has been the FHA mortgage.
Now, the FHA is not a bank, they are merely an insurance provider for banks. Other banks make the mortgage with knowledge that the FHA will cover a certain amount of possible loss incurred, thus alleviating a lot of the risk associated with making that loan to begin with. So, now that FHA loans make up over 30% of all mortgages being currently written, this pool of insurance is being massively stressed by all of the poor performance of mortgages of late.
Continue Reading – New FHA Rules! (How Does This Affect Portland?)
More Signs of Life in Real Estate
Posted On: September 28th, 2009 by James Posted In: Mortgage Insurance • Mortgage Programs
Mortgage Trust Underwriter Jamie Carter, has just passed along some interesting news to our staff. She says that Genworth Insurance a major PMI provider has just taken the Portland metro marketplace off of the “declining markets” list.
This means that we can now make conforming loans up to 95% of their appraised value.
Before this happened our access to 95% financing was mostly found through FHA loans (which go up to 96.5%). There was some insurance available, but it was very limited, and expensive.
Continue Reading – More Signs of Life in Real Estate
Special Foreclosed Property Financing
Posted On: July 12th, 2009 by James Posted In: Mortgage Insurance • Mortgage Programs
My company Mortgage Trust has access to a special Fannie Mae loan program called the HOMEPATH mortgage. It allows buyers to buy homes with 3% down, No mortgage insurance, and No appraisal. Credit scores are flexible, as are payment structures (ARMS are available, as well as interest only payments). Here’s what is really interesting about this program, The Homepath loan is ONLY available for certain properties. The house used as collateral MUST be a Fannie Mae Bank repossessed property. So this amounts to “special financing” for foreclosed homes.
One of the best things about this program is its availability to Investors! You can buy a Fannie Mae Foreclosed property with this program, the minimum downpayment is only 10%. So you can invest in real estate with 10% down… NO mortgage insurance, and NO appraisal!
Please contact me for details.
SEARCH FOR AVAILABLE FNMA FORECLOSURES HERE.
