Fedral Housing Administration Backed Loans - FHA Mortgage Loans
FHA Home Loans - FHA loans have been increasingly popular since the mortgage crunch in September of 2007. Many lenders tha are not FHA approved are going out of business. The interest rate on FHA loans is usually about the same as conventional mortgage rates for people with the best credit.. There are no income restrictions with FHA loans and required Mortgage Insurance is less expensive than Private Mortgage Insurance for Conventional loans. Depending on other criteria, credit scores can be quite low with FHA loans, and there is technically no minimum credit requirement.
FHA loans will finance 97% loan to Value. They can be no money down loans when the remaining 3% is gifted by a relative, or even the seller of the house through the nehimiah gift program. With FHA loans, the buyer can also ask for the seller to pay for closing costs. Sellers are not required to pay closing costs, and so in many cases the purchase price is bumped up to accomidate seller payed closing costs.
One disadvantage of FHA loans is that they require upfront mortgage insurance as well as monthly M.I. required for a minimum of 5 years, even if the home has 20% equity. Mortgage Insurance is essentially "foreclosure insurance" to protect the lender from losses resulting from foreclosing. Because of the strict mortgage insurance requirements with FHA loans, buyers with 10% down payments will usually save money by financing their mortgage with a conventional loan.
