MORTGAGE BLOG!

Well say hello to $292,500.00 for an FHA loan limit as of March 17th! Yep, good ole' St. Patrick's day is the day. For those of you not familiar, FHA loans are goverment insured loans that have lenient underwriting guidelines. BEST PART, they offer conforming rates and 3% down! EVEN BETTER, Pinellas Financial has several options to get borrowers to the closing table with NO MONEY DOWN! We offer grant programs and down payment assistance that cover the 3% down AND closing costs!

So go "KICK" your borrowers off the fence with this NEWS! And why not, housing prices are low! If you have clients saying "I think home prices are still going to come down, so I am going to wait until things bottom out". Let them know they will know for sure that the market has "bottomed out" when they begin to see home prices rising again, and they missed it! :)

See you next week!

By the way, 30 year, FHA fixed rate today.....5.75%!

Well the news is good again for the Real Estate and Lending industries! Recently, stories have been appearing in many major news publications showing listings are decreasing and home sales are increasing. Specifically, a report from National City Corporation together with a financial analysis firm; Global Insight, report listings are 18% lower in February 08' than February 07'.

Also, home sales up 22% in February 08' as compared to January 08'. Now these are national averages, so if you're not quite seeing these results in your area, don't despair. The important thing is to see the trend of "recovery"! Economists for firms such as the ones mentioned above and Moody's financial data are projecting modest increases in home values beginning in 09'.

Sooo, WE HAVE HIT BOTTOM! Now we start the slow crawl up! Interest rates are great, FHA limits were just raised and there is a "glut" of affordable housing on the market. When would there be a better time or more opportunity to be productive in our industry? :)

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!