http://loans.housechick.com Just another Tucson Real Estate Market Statistics and Market Reports by the Housechick weblog Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:14:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In an announcement earlier this year, HUD announced changes to FHA home loans. Starting early April 2010: the upfront mortgage insurance premium will increase from 1.75% to 2.25% of the loan amount. seller contributions to buyer costs cannot exceed 3% of the purchase price, down from 6%. borrowers will need a FICO score of ... http://loans.housechick.com/tucson-real-estate-loan/new-fha-guidelines-%e2%80%93-coming-soon-to-tucson/ Now that we spent a week on the changes, I thought we should look at the RESPA reform from some other sides.  These changes impact not only a home buyer, but also the lender and the escrow officer.  So let’s see what they have to say. I asked Phaedra Wilson of ... http://loans.housechick.com/tucson-real-estate-loan/a-lender%e2%80%99s-thoughts-on-the-new-good-faith-estimate/ Yesterday, we talked about the new Good Faith Estimate.  One of the biggest changes there was the introduction of tolerances – what fees can vary from estimate to closing, and by what amount.  We’ll see that concept again in this, the HUD-1 Settlement Statement. The HUD-1 is a document you get ... http://loans.housechick.com/tucson-real-estate-loan/the-new-hud-1/ Yesterday, we talked about the RESPA reform that took effect January 2010.  That change means you’ll be seeing a new Good Faith Estimate when you apply for a home loan. A Good Faith Estimate – or GFE – is a disclosure document.  It gives you an estimate of the charges and ... http://loans.housechick.com/tucson-real-estate-loan/the-new-good-faith-estimate-%e2%80%93-gfe/ There are some changes afoot in the way loan disclosure and closing cost statements are made. The Department of Housing and Urban Development decided to try to make understanding your loan costs a little bit easier for the average consumer.  Tried to make it easier to shop for a loan.  Tried ... http://loans.housechick.com/tucson-real-estate-loan/welcome-to-acronym-week-respa-hud-and-the-gfe-%e2%80%93-oh-my/ I was talking to a friend the other day – a former mortgage guy and a general disruptive force in the industry.  He’s got a small obsession with bringing transparency and openness to the mortgage industry, especially as it relates to interest rates and the various ways mortgage brokers ... http://loans.housechick.com/tucson-real-estate-loan/do-you-trust-me/ Getting a home loan can be a big deal. There’s a lot of news out there about interest rates being low – I remember my first interest rate on my home loan was 8% and that was a FABULOUS deal back in 2000. Generally, rates are even lower now; my ... http://loans.housechick.com/tucson-real-estate-loan/locking-your-interest-rate-when-buying-a-tucson-home/ Interesting article about credit scores from my lender friend Justin McHood in Phoenix.  FICO (the people who created the industry standard in credit scoring) released information on how much your credit score may go down when something bad happens – something like maxing out a credit card, having a ... http://loans.housechick.com/tucson-real-estate-loan/how-mistakes-affect-your-credit-score/ Question from the blog today – will rates and home prices keep going down? Answer – depends on what time period you look at.  Let’s start with home prices.  Will they continue to go down over the next month?  Most certainly.  Over the next year?  It’s likely.  Over the next ... http://loans.housechick.com/tucson-real-estate-loan/will-mortgage-rates-and-home-prices-continue-to-decline-in-tucson/ Over at The Mortgage Reports blog, Dan Green keeps a close eye on interest rates and trends. If we trust history, mortgage interest rates should continue to decline into 2010.  The information in the chart below is from Freddie Mac, since 2006. However, we’re in a different market than we have ... http://loans.housechick.com/tucson-real-estate-loan/mortgage-rate-trends-%e2%80%93-will-rates-go-up-or-down/