On Wednesday the Federal Reserve announced that the economy is “proceeding” and will keep interest rates at record lows, near zero.

Flood Bill Extended:

Thousands of home owners can breathe a sigh of relief. The House of Representatives passed a bill to extend the authority for the National Flood Insurance Program thru Sept 30th, 2010.

“The passage of H.R. 5569 is a first step toward helping home buyers to the closing table,” said NAR President Vicki Cox Golder.

Lenders would not close loans on transactions where flood insurance was required. The coverage would now be retroactive from when the insurance program expired May 31st. Now the senate will have to review the bill.

At the same time a survey was done to CEOs of large U.S. companies. The good news….39% said they expect to increase the number of people on their payrolls in the second half of 2010.

Source: Associated Press, Alan Zibel (06/23/2010)

Fannie Mae getting tough with homeowners who just “walk away”:

Fannie Mae announced plans Wednesday to get tough with those who default when they are able to pay. Those borrowers wouldn’t be able to get another Fannie Mae mortgage for 7 years. The current wait is five years. Fannie also threatened to sue home owners who walk away from their mortgages in states where such deficiency judgments are legal.

Some critics say the company should try principal write-downs before it penalizes borrowers for choosing to walk away.

Source: CNNMoney.com, Tami Luhby (06/23/2010)

On Friday Fannie Mae announced it will require borrowers using interest-only mortgages to place at least 30% down. This requirement will ensure that buyers can qualify for their mortgage payments should the interest rate rise to the CAP rate, which wasn’t the way the mortgages had been underwritten in the past.

Fannie Mae also said that in order for them to purchase ARM’s that borrowers must qualify using either:

1. The loan’s initial interest rate plus two percentage points.
2. The cap, the maximum the interest rate can rise.

“Our goal is to make sure consumers can sustain their mortgages and remain in their homes over the long-term, while helping our lender partners offer a range of mortgage products for qualified borrowers,” says Marianne Sullivan, senior vice president of Single Family Credit Policy and Risk Management at Fannie Mae, in a prepared release.

In light of defaults from the last 2 years, this makes sense to make sure the borrowers can sustain their mortgages payment should the interest rate rise and just in case the borrowers for some reason are unable to refinance their homes. Perhaps they should think about raising the credit score for those borrowers as well.

For more information on the FHA changes, inlcuding a summary of all changes,

Rates on 15-year fixed loans were also lower, averaging 4.40 percent, compared to 4.45 percent last week. Adjustable-rate mortgages also fell this week, the 5/1 ARM being at 4.27% and the 1 year at 4.32. .

“Fixed mortgage rates followed bond yields lower for the third consecutive week, pushing 30-year mortgages below 5 percent once more,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Similarly, ARM rates eased along with shorter-term rates, as the federal funds futures market indicates no increase in the Federal Reserve’s target rate following its upcoming committee meeting on January 26th and 27th.

Source: Freddie Mac

· The statewide median price of an existing single-family home increased 0.3 percent in October to $297,500, compared with September 2009.

· C.A.R.’s Unsold Inventory Index fell to 4 months in October, compared with 6.1 months in October 2008.

. The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 34.1 days in October 2009, compared with 45.5 days (revised) for the same period a year ago.

. Statewide, the 10 cities with the highest median home prices in California during October 2009 were: Palo Alto, $1,639,550; Los Altos, $1,592,550; Manhattan Beach, $1,037,500; Cupertino, $1,030,000; Newport Beach, $935,000; Los Gatos, $920,000; Rancho Palos Verdes, $900,000; Santa Barbara, $897,500; Lafayette, $867,500; and Santa Monica, $786,000.

October 2009 Regional Sales and Price Activity*
Regional and Condo Sales Data Not Seasonally Adjusted

Median Prices By Region – Current Month vs. Year Ago

 Source: CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^®

. Thirty-year fixed-mortgage interest rates averaged 4.95 percent during October 2009, compared with 6.20 percent in October 2008, according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged 4.55 percent in October 2009, compared with 5.21 percent in October 2008.

According to Freddie Mac on Thursday, the 30 year fixed rate dropped from an average of 4.78% to 4.71% from last week. This is the lowest since Freddie Mac compiled data since 1971. Rates have been low all year because of the Fed’s purchase of mortgage-back securities, which in end in the Sping of 2010. This is helping to push mortgage applications which increased 2.1% during the Thanksgiving week stated the Mortgage Bankers Association. But while rates are low, there are still tight credit standards which may hinder buyers qualifying for the lowest rates.  Most buyers will need 20% down, and a high credit scrore in order to qualify. But the push has helped drive more than 4 percent in purchase applications and nearly 2 percent increase in applications to refinance existing loans.

More Cash Required for an FHA loan

The Federal Housing Administration officials are proposing policy changes for FHA-insured mortgage borrowers to help the agency increase its federally mandated funding requirements. Higher credit scores and an increase in the current minimum down payment may be what buyers across America will have to have an order to qualify for and FHA loan. This proposed change is due to increasing financial issues FHA has been facing, which has increased it’s exposure and led to more delinquencies. The Obama Administration may try to propose other ways of increasing closing costs instead of increasing the minimum down payment, such as increasing mortgage insurance premimums or raising minimum credit score requirements so that the change would only effect the lower scoring borrowers. This will make it harder for some but will also reduce the risk of FHA having financial difficulites. FHA’s traditional role was to help American’s reach their dream of homeownership. The details of the change aren’t expected to be final until next month.

First-time Homebuyers

• Tax credit up to $8,000
• Deadline extended until April 30, 2010. Plus, if a contract is signed before May 1, 2010 there will be 60 days to close on the home.
• Buyers that have not owned a home in the last 3 years.
• Purchases in 2010 can be claimed on 2009 tax return.
• Income limits increased to $125,000 on a single return and $225,000 on a joint return, up from $75,000 & $150,000.

Step-up Buyers

• Tax credit up to $6,500
• Purchases between December 1, 2009 and May 1, 2010. The same opportunity to close within 60 days applies.
• Buyers that have owned the same home for 5 consecutive of the last 8 years.
• Purchases in 2010 can be claimed on 2009 tax return.

Income limits are also $125,000 on a single return and $225,000 on a joint return.