It’s Official…FHA Up Front Mortgage Insurance Increased

In a HUD Mortgage Letter I received today, David H. Stevens, Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner issued the change for FHA Up Front Mortgage Insurance. So, effective for FHA loans for which the case number is assigned on or after April 5, 2010, FHA will collect an upfront mortgage insurance premium of 2.25 percent. Previously it was 1.75%. This policy change will increase premiums for purchase money and refinance transactions, including FHA-to-FHA credit-qualifying and non-credit qualifying streamlined refinance transactions.

The only FHA programs that are exempt from this change are as follows:

– Title I
– Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs)
– Hope for Homeowners (H4H)
– Section 247 (Hawaiian Homelands)
– Section 248 (Indian Reservations),
– Section 223(e) (declining neighborhoods)
– Section 238(c) (Military Impact areas in Georgia and New York)

Just when you think the rule changing is part of the past, it finds it’s way back to the present.