Well, the big development, coming out just today, was that Fannie Mae has chosen to relax it’s standards to allow conventional financing up to 97% even in distressed sales market.  The affect of this new change is that for the past few months, most borrowers had to have a minimum of 5% and many lenders even insisted on 10% down.  Now that Fannie Mae has said they will once again purchase mortgages with conventional financing and only 3% down, borrowers are not forced to get an FHA loan if they are looking for minimum down payment.  That allows them to avoid the 1.5% FHA “funding fee” that must be charged on FHA loans.  Obviously, these borrowers will still have monthly mortgage insurance but they are allowed higher purchase prices than FHA allows.   All in all, a good Loan Consultant can still help to guide perspective borrowers into the right choice for them.

The other big piece of news today was that Consumer Confidence has dropped to a low not seen since the Carter administration.  This is most likely due to the fact that consumers at large feel that there is still more difficulty coming in the economic markets. 

My summary??  Rates are still really good.  The thing that is stopping most borrowers is that there is now a shortage of ‘niche’ programs that fit borrowers that do not fit conventional guidelines.  While I understand that many programs should not have been so easy, I think there needs to be a balace that can accomodate those that are not conventional but still good credit risks.  Until we begin to see some of those programs coming back, difficulties will continue. 

If I can be of any help to you, please do not hesitate to call/email me!!