FHA IS NOT JUST FOR THE 1ST TIME HOME BUYER as many people previously thought. FHA has come a long way over the many years to help buyers be able to call a house their own home. The percentage of FHA buyers has increased dramatically over just the past few years. FHA is not credit score driven and can have looser ratios than conventional financing.

There have just been some new FHA guidelines passed that might help certain buyers even more. Site condos used to have to get FHA spot approvals; and, the new word is that FHA will finally treat them as the single family homes that they have always been. As far as condos are concerned, the whole complex must now be FHA approved. You will no longer be able to get just a spot approval on a condominium that is in a complex that is not FHA approved. However, your lender can try and get the whole complex approved; and, if successful, will be able to give you an FHA loan on your unit.

FHA has increased it’s previous 3% down payment to 3.5%. A seller can contribute up to 6% of the purchase price and might also be able to waive tax pro-rations to give the buyer an even better advantage.

The tax credit for buyers that the government is granting if they purchase by December 1, 2009 might also be used with an FHA loan to help pay closing costs, buy down the rate or add to the 3.5% down payment. This is more than likely going to be up to the individual lenders as to which ones are going to work with this credit for the buyer. I am sure that this could be confusing for some buyers as to just how much credit they will be getting. The lenders will want to make sure that they are doing their calculations correctly for the borrowers or they could end up supporting some of the tax credit themselves.

If any/all of this sounds confusing to you and you would like further explanation, please give me a call and it will be my pleasure to try and answer whatever questions that you might have that will help you better understand the inner workings of these FHA loans.