Monday, February 6, 2017

Housing Market & Policy Update/Early February 2017

Housing Market Update/Early February 2017

Home sales have hit a 10 year high (5.45 million existing home units sold in 2016, a quarter-million more than in 2015), and we are looking forward to working to help keep our real estate market strong and thriving. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun says to keep our housing market strong we need to see more inventory from existing and new construction home sales. Interest rates in 2017 are still great, so contact us if you are thinking of selling your home, and/or buying a home.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) works hard to help shape policy to help provide the best home buying and selling market conditions a reality.  NAR is calling on FHA to take more steps to help home buyers, including eliminating FHA’s “life of loan” mortgage insurance requirement, which forces borrowers to maintain mortgage insurance regardless of their equity position. Borrowers with traditional mortgage insurance can typically extinguish their mortgage insurance once they reach 20 percent equity in the property. 

There is an area where you may want to participate by contacting the current administration at The White House and ask that they drop the suspension of the FHA MIP rollback that NAR had supported, and is now working aggressively to have this MIP decrease put back on the books. 
The last administration had approved reducing the FHA mortgage insurance premium by 25 basis points to allow more Americans to reach their dreams of home ownership, and HUD felt it was a conservative measure to help support home buyers on the path to the American Dream.  The new premium schedule was to take effect on January 27th, 2017 and was expected to save the average home buyer about $500 a year in insurance costs. NAR estimates that approximately 30,000-40,000 borrowers would have been able to access FHA financing under the reduced premium. But the current administration suspended this rollback on January 20th before it took effect. NAR supported the reduction when this was announced “After four straight years of growth and with sufficient reserves on hand to meet future claims, it’s time for FHA to pass along some modest savings to working families,” Julian Castro, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. NAR President Bill Brown praised the move. “Dropping mortgage insurance premiums will mean a lot more responsible borrowers are eligible to purchase a home through FHA,” he said. “That puts more money in the fund to protect taxpayers, and it puts more families in homes so they can live out the American dream.”  

I've sent my request to the White House, asking them to please help keep America Moving on the path to home ownership, and will keep you updated on the market conditions and policy that will be shaping our 2017 housing market.

Please don't hesitate to contact us anytime for help with your real estate needs. The Benadum & Bumpus Team is committed to helping you reach your real estate goals. We love helping you buy and sell homes to help improve the quality of your life.  This requires a variety of solutions to take your dreams from goals to plans to complete. We stay on top of trends and programs to help ensure you have the most information available to make the best decisions. Please consider referring us to your family and friends.



No comments:

Post a Comment