In the government’s most sweeping response yet to the nation’s housing crisis, the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed The Housing Rescue Bill and have forwarded the bill to the President for his signature. Here are a few key provisions of that bill.
FHA would eliminate the use of down payment assistant programs that allowed sellers to participate in helping with the down payment such as the Nehemiah program. Buyers would also now need to have down payment of 3.5% up from the traditional 3%. This will take affect Oct. 1, 2008.
The FHA maximum loan limit for high cost areas will be increased to $625,000 to coincide with the new proposed permanent increase to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, from $417,000 to $625,500. This is scheduled to take affect Jan 1, 2009.
In addition to the above, first time homebuyers can now get a $7500 tax credit for qualified home purchases made between April 9, 2008 and June 30, 2009, thanks to the recently passed housing stimulus legislation.
The Bremner Group understands that in an ever changing lending environment, it is more important than ever to keep informed of all the updates to the lending industry. That’s why our team, and Steve Eckhoff, are ready at all times to answer all of your financing questions. Please feel free to call us at 310-571-1364.