Home refinancing to see lower mortgage insurance premiums from the Federal Housing Administration

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has announced that it will be lowering the premiums for mortgage insurance for individuals who are refinancing their loans due to the housing market improvement strategy by President Barack Obama. The FHA has stated that it will be reducing the up-front premiums to bring them down from their former position at 1 percent, to 0.01 percent. This was indicated in a fact sheet that the Obama Administration began distributing on Tuesday. According to that same fact sheet, there will also be a reduction in the…

Read More

Realtors pressure Congress to reform the National Flood Insurance Program

Realtors have raised an alarm regarding flood insurance. Flood insurance is currently a major, yet little known issue in the U.S. Most homes do not have protection against flood damage and those homes that are required to have such protections as per their mortgage agreements obtain this coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The federal program has been crippled by debt, however, making its future uncertain. If the program does fail, realtors from the National Association of Realtors fear that the still-fragile housing market may not survive the…

Read More

U.S. mortgage insurance on the brink of collapse, changes for the housing market loom

The U.S. mortgage insurance market is on the cusp of a major revolution, but not for the better. The problems stem from the 2008 worldwide economic recession. The recession took a massive toll on the U.S. housing market, resulting in a crisis that persists to this day. Several insurance companies that specialized in mortgages floundered in the wake of the recession and those that survived now hold too much risk to continue writing policies. Insurers lost billions as a result of the housing crisis, losing much of the surplus capital…

Read More