FHA Loan
FHA brought out a new loan that will allow people to finance in Solar panels on their home. It is along the same lines of the FHA EEM or Energy Efficient Mortgage, where people can get upgrades like insulation and windows to improve their energy efficiency.
In this case, FHA will allow a buyer to get with a Solar Panel company, and post close, install solar panels. We are waiting on the official underwriting guidelines, but some of the basics are:
Must meet HOA standards
Have to be new
Can not be leased
Can NOT go off the grid, still have to stay with power company.
They will also allow for a wind turbine, but I just don’t see a CBH Neighborhood with a bunch of Wind Turbines stick up all over the place.
Closing Costs
A recent survey from ClosingCorp showed that 17% of respondent were surprise to find out there were closing costs associated with a mortgage….really??? Government has spent BILLIONS of $, and tons of regulations and almost 1/5 of the people out there still don’t realize it cost money to get a mortgage.
Now I am sure some of those people were suckered into the “NO Closing” advertising schemes, but 1/5 of the population??
CFPB going after Zillow Leads
Came across some blogs and the National Real Estate Post, that CFPB auditors are auditing Mortgage Lenders and Real Estate Agent on their Marketing Agreements with Zillow. I suspect we will see the CFPB coming out shortly with “Guidance” i.e. fines and lawsuits, with regards to Zillow provided leads. Hang onto your hats, the ride is going to get real bumpy!!!
Video here:https://mortgageshots.com/cfpb-examiner-says-buying-zillow-leads-non-compliant/
Credit report changes.
There was a huge lawsuit against the Credit Reporting Agencies, saying they were not keeping up with updated information on credit report with regards to liens and judgements. So what did they do? Well Beginning July 1st, certain tax liens and judgments will be removed from credit report, thus boosting FICO scores.
A great example of this is right here in Idaho. If you owe Idaho state income tax, even if you make a payment arrangement with the State of Idaho, they immediately put a tax lien on your credit report. And that stays there until you pay it off. And in some cases, it stay on the credit report for a LONG, LONG time.
The urban myth is that liens and judgement come off your credit report after 7 years, but I have personally seen liens on credit report WAY over 7 years old.
This will all end, beginning July 1st.
News article from NBC here: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/changes-credit-report-criteria-could-boost-scores-n733596
BUT…. This doesn’t mean a current lien, which you still owe, won’t show up. I feel the lenders are going to ask the title companies to do more in-depth searches for these liens and judgements.
And finally Rates
Well the Federal Reserve raised rates on Wednesday, by .25%. Now we actually saw a HUGE rate improvement on mortgage rates that day, why you ask well….
1st, bond trader were hedging their bets on the what if, what if the Fed raised rates by .375 or .50, so they had that prices in mortgage rates.
2nd, in the policy statement, the Fed indicated they were not going to do anything on their balance sheet. The Fed is currently holding BILLIONS of mortgage back securities, and they indicate that they are still going to continue to purchase them, at a rate of $7Billion per WEEK, thus keeping mortgage rates artificially low.
This doesn’t mean rates are not going to go up, just not as fast, but we are definitely in the Mid 4’s right now, and it is likely we will be trending towards 4.625 in the next 30 days.
Not going to go into the economic reports, lets just say all are Good to GREAT. Especially unemployment, holy cow jobs numbers look good.
It is anticipated that the Fed will raise rates MINIMUM of 2 more times this year, so we will get that baked into rates here shortly, probably June and October.
