Get ready for larger conforming loans

 Loan Programs, Residential Mortgage  Comments Off on Get ready for larger conforming loans
Dec 012016
 

For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.

By G. Steven Bray

The maximum conforming loan limit is going up in 2017. This is the max loan size for a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage, what we sometimes call a conventional loan. The new limit will be $424,100, up from $417k.

This is the first increase since before the financial crisis. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 established $417k as a baseline and directed the Federal Housing Finance Agency to adjust the limit each year to account for changes in the national average home price. However, the Act required that the limit not rise until home prices had recovered to their pre-crisis level.

The FHFA set third quarter of 2007 as the official pre-crisis price level, and the price level in the third quarter of this year exceeded it by 1.7%. The increase in the loan limit matches that increase.

The new loan limit is effective Jan 1st.

Changes to conforming mortgage loan limits?

 Loan Guidelines, Residential Mortgage  Comments Off on Changes to conforming mortgage loan limits?
Aug 072015
 

For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.

By G. Steven Bray

Could the conforming loan limit change this year? The Wall Street Journal seems to think so. If it’s right, this would be the first time in a decade.

The conforming loan limit is the maximum amount you can borrow on a loan financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. In all areas of TX, that limit is $417k. (In the early 1970’s, the limit was $33k.) A loan amount above the limit is called a jumbo loan, and those loans typically have stricter qualifying criteria, such as higher down payment requirements, and traditionally have carried higher rates. By contrast, the minimum down payment for a conforming loan is 3%.

The limit is based on median home-sale prices reported by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) with some wiggle room for higher-priced areas. The Journal notes that home prices in many housing markets have climbed back to pre-recession levels.

We’ll know this fall if FHFA makes a change, which would become effective on Jan 1st.