Annual FHA MIP increases go into effect April 2013.

This is no April Fool's joke.  

Home shoppers desiring to utilize FHA as their qualifying home financing vehicle and certain FHA refinance candidates will have to pay a little more after April 1, 2013.

Consistent with FHA’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, FHA (HUD) is increasing the annual MIP (mortgage insurance premium) on all forward mortgages except single family forward streamline refinance transactions that refinance existing FHA loans that were endorsed on or before May 31, 2009 (see ML 2012-4).

Effective Date:  The section of this ML that increases the annual MIP is effective for case numbers assigned on or after April 1, 2013.

Additional changes to duration of annual MIP will go into effect June 3, 2013.  More on this later, or if you would like to review the HUD Mortgagee letter 2013-04 now, click here.

If you are in Arizona or California, please feel free to contact me for a mortgage review and beat the increase.

Until Next Time,

Craig Turley

At Least the USA is not Greece, yet.

A boy aged 14 wrote: "The present is uncertain, the future looks nonexistent. When a country dies, so do its inhabitants.

As the the fiscal follies of the USA continue to mount, there is a shining example of a country which may have let things get past the point of no return. 

(excerpt from Greece:  A debt colony, shackled to its lenders)

In order to impose austerity measures, the government is already using undemocratic methods like legislative ordinances that bypass parliamentary control. But even that is not enough for Greece's saviours, who demand a further narrowing of democracy.

The Greek government has agreed not only to transfer all of the revenues from privatising public assets to a special account for servicing its debt. It has also agreed to transfer all of its budget surpluses up to 4.5 percent of GDP, and an additional 30 percent of any surplus beyond that! So even in the best-case scenario, in which Greece would have the fiscal resources to raise pensions and boost funding for the public healthcare system and public education, it will simply not be permitted to do so. There is no room for political decisions anymore.

It is not an exaggeration to claim that Greece is a debt colony now, shackled to its lenders. It is subservient to a trust of bankers, bureaucrats and neo-liberal fundamentalist politicians in northern Europe (and within Greece, too) who aim to impose their doctrine regardless of its apparent failure and the will of the Greek people.

Entire Story

Personally, you or I probably will not change the path of fiscal chaos engaged in by the folks in Congress.  However, we can take charge of our own personal debt load and not be shackled to our lenders.  Please feel free to contact me for an overall mortgage analysis including term reduction, debt consolidation and lower interest costs in your life.

Craig Turley is a mortgage banker with 20 years finance experience based in Scottsdale, Arizona.  He is licensed to conduct business in Arizona and California.  Contact Craig.