I received tips from two different people in the last few days about a recent change in FHA underwriting standards announced in a letter titled “Back to Work – Extenuating Circumstances“
Quoting from the letter:
As a result of the recent recession many borrowers who experienced unemployment or other severe reductions in income, were unable to make their monthly mortgage payments, and ultimately lost their homes to a pre-foreclosure sale, deed-in-lieu, or foreclosure. Some borrowers were forced to file for bankruptcy to discharge or restructure their debts. Because of these recent recession-related periods of financial difficulty, borrowers’ credit has been negatively affected. FHA recognizes the hardships faced by these borrowers, and realizes that their credit histories may not fully reflect their true ability or propensity to repay a mortgage.
To that end, FHA is allowing for the consideration of borrowers who have experienced an Economic Event and can document that:
- certain credit impairments were the result of a Loss of Employment or a significant loss of Household Income beyond the borrower’s control;
- the borrower has demonstrated full recovery from the event; and,
- the borrower has completed housing counseling.
In other words, they’re throwing the gates wide open, extending FHA-insured financing to borrowers who have gone through foreclosure, deed-in-lieu, short sale, or bankruptcy as recently as one year ago. The waiting periods were previously three years after a foreclosure or short sale and two years after a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
To me the three-year waiting period seems completely reasonable. Why would FHA feel the need to shorten it to as little as one year? My tipsters have their theories.
Says one:
…FHA is nearly broke and this creates huge churn in fees. …it was only a matter of time before they did something like this to keep the churn going. …it is still almost hard to believe they would take it this far.
The other’s theory is remarkably similar:
In my opinion the reason FHA has relaxed underwriting guidelines is because the FHA Mortgage Insurance Fund is dangerously low and they need to invite more people to use FHA because they need more mortgage insurance premiums to pay losses on future claims.
I think people who are that close to financial disaster in their recent past need to stop and think before jumping into home ownership again. It’s really not for everyone… lots of work… cost of upkeep. I know the industry especially Realtors will jump all over this.
One thing we can be sure of: HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan (pictured at right) isn’t pushing through a major decision like this out of the kindness of his heart and unbridled empathy for downtrodden homeowners. National government agencies make big policy changes for one of two reasons: the new direction either furthers someone’s political agenda or it is a necessary reaction to cold hard economic facts.
Given that this move isn’t getting the usual media circus attention that the political agenda items typically receive, I’m inclined to subscribe to the theory offered by my two tipsters.