Today's Announcement from HUD Secretary

Todays Announcements
This was posted January 20, 2010 by David H Stevens, Secretary of the United States Dept. of HUD on Active Rain, a national real estate network, of which I am a member. This office oversees the FHA programs for Single & Multi-Family housing; HUD's Healthcare programs (insurance for hospitals & nursing homes); manages regulatory policy for RESPA, Manufactured Housing, & SAFE.

[Re-blogged with permission, January 21, 2010.]

Via David H Stevens (United States Dept. of HUD):
Today I will be announcing a series of changes to FHA that will affect some of you. As you read about them, please note a few key points.

FHA fell below is legislated requirement to have 2% in excess capital for reserves above and beyond forcasted losses. Being below this 2% requires me, by law, to make changes to get the funds reserves back over 2%. Virtually all of the losses are from 2006, 2007, and 2008 book years. These are the worst years in the housing crisis from an origination standpoint and they contained programs like the SFDPA (seller funded downpayment assistance) that have extremely high default rates.

The changes announced today will get the reserves up and put in place some controls to protect the fund and FHA for the long term, while making sure not to overly, adversely, impact this housing market at a critical time.

You can read about these in any major newpaper today or perhaps tomorrow, but please understand that these are necessary to keep FHA functioning. Without some tightening, we would be under extreme scrutiny and the lack of fiscal soundness could threaten FHA for the long term.

The housing market is slowly coming back to life in many markets across the country. Let's keep working at making this american dream of homeownership be part of a safe and responsible system for the long term.

Thanks for listening and for being a professional in this industry - it's why I post here in active rain - this place is filled with real pros.

Lori is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors serving the greater Tulsa area, including midtown Tulsa, downtown Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Owasso, Bixby, Sand Spring and Jenks, Oklahoma. Please visit Lori's web site, LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.