USDA Rural Development Program Receives Cash Infusion

According to the National Association of REALTORS, the USDA will once again have funding for their guaranteed loan program:

————————————————————-
Thousands of Rural Home Buyers Aided by Passage of Housing Funding Measure
Washington, July 28, 2010

The restoration of the single-family rural housing program that would guarantee home loans for rural buyers was passed by the Senate today and is on its way to President Obama.

The National Association of Realtors® has vigorously lobbied to restore funding for the rural program since last March, and hailed this development as a great victory for rural home buyers.

“This is going to be a great lift for thousands of rural home buyers who need to close on their home purchases before Sept. 30 to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit,” said NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz. “Many rural families would have been left out in the cold without these guaranteed loans. Increasing the commitment authority will help rural families, support local housing markets, create jobs and generate new tax revenues,” Golder said.

“The rural housing program is a good example of the kind of program needed for responsible and qualified home buyers who bring common sense to the housing market,” said Golder. The legislation increases the guarantee fee for borrowers, but allows the fee to be financed. “This change will make the program completely self-sufficient,” she said.

Full Story

40% Of Twin Cities Home Purchasers Used FHA In 1st Half 2010

The trend from 2009 continues: nearly 40% of all home buyers in the Twin Cities during the 1st half of 2010 used FHA Loan to finance their purchase.  This is up from just 2% in 2007!

Why are so many buyers using FHA loans to purchase their home? Here are some reasons:

  • FHA requires only a 3.5% down payment
  • FHA 203k (rehab) loans can make it easier for buyers to fix up houses
  • FHA underwriting requirements are often now more lenient than Conventional mortgages (below)
  • FHA allows higher debt to income ratios and lower credit scores than many Conventional products
  • Mortgage insurance is often cheaper than conventional loans

Many consumers believe that FHA loans are only for first-time buyers – that is simply not true.  Repeat buyers can qualify too, so long as they are owner-occupants.

I would venture to guess that without FHA loans, 1/2 of those buyers would not have been able to purchase this year – that would have added up to a lot of lost sales!

Twin Cities Home Buyer Financing Over The Years

I took some time today to go over some NorthstarMLS data (the Twin Cities area MLS data service) to see how home buyer financing has changed over the last few years and put together a few pie charts that I thought you might enjoy.  Click on each image for a bigger view:

Twin Cities Real Estate

Twin Cities Sold Homes

Twin Cities Real Estate

Twin Cities Homes

Twin Cities Real Estate

Twin Cities Homes

Buyer financing shifted dramatically from 2007 to 2008 as FHA and Cash became far more popular financing options and shifted again in 2009 when FHA and Cash doubled in percent usage.  There are several different trends happening here that explain these numbers and I am going to go into more detail on those trends in future blog posts.

FHA Loans Make up Nearly 40% of Real Estate Sales in Twin Cities in 2009

The housing market continues to change and one of the largest changes in 2009 was the resurgence of FHA financing.  As lenders have tighted up financing requirements and increased down payments from 0% a few years ago to predominantly 10% today, FHA’s more forgiving standards and lower 3.5% down payment requirement have made it a very popular tool in the last 12 months.  In fact, FHA financing has zoomed from 3% of sales in 2007 to 37% in 2009 – just two years later!  That is an over 1000% increase!

The other very interesting trend is the dramatic increase in cash transactions.  In 2007 and years prior, Cash purchases made up approximately 5% of total properties purchased.  In 2009, that number had soared to 17% – a 240% increase in just 2 years!  This substantial shift is largely related to the increase in foreclosure property sales – many of these properties are in such bad shape that they cannot be financed.  In other cases it is an investor buying for solid cash flow as a rental or to rehab the property and resell.



Equal Housing Opportunity and REALTOR logo

TwinCitiesRealEstateBlog.com is not a Multiple Listing Service MLS, nor does it offer MLS access.
This website is a service of Aaron Dickinson of Edina Realty, a broker Participant of the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc.