Orange County FHA, VA, Conventional Mortgage Blog

So how much of a difference will a significant interest rate drop make for Orange County, CA home buyers? For some people it will be a mean lower payment. For others, the increased buying power will afford them a better home, extra bedroom, bigger yard, or whatever it is that will meet a home buy...

What is the difference between getting a PreQualification versus PreApproval? Why do I need either? I hear these questions quite a bit. There are very good reasons why a potential home buyer would want to get PreApproved, and there are important differences between a PreQualification and a PreApp...

The 203K program has been around for a while, but a few years ago the "Streamline" version of the program was released by HUD. The 203K is a Rehab loan program. The more popular "Streamline K" program is good for up to $35,000 in improvements. When this is combined with the fact that you can buy ...

It's that time of the year once again. Time to decide if you will put that home purchase you've been planning off until after the holidays, or try to close escrow on a home before the end of the year. This year there are a few things to consider that may push you to take action now. The Jumbo FHA...

Since the temporary increase in FHA limitsin March, and now with the permanent increase to $625,500 for Orange County, CA FHA loans, FHA has become a very popular loan program for home buyers. FHA was always a good program, but the limits were always too low. Now that the loan limits are equal to...

2009 has been a big year in Orange County for the FHA Reverse Mortgage program, also known as the HECM, or Home Equity Conversion Mortgage. There are many myths regarding Reverse Mortgages. Many of these myths are far from the truth. Some are based on how Reverse Mortgages were written in the 80'...

The CalSTRS (California State Teachers Retirement System) offers a great 97% loan program. It is actually a "80/17" program, where the 17% is a Silent 2nd with deferred payments for the first 5 years of the loan. For California teachers who are eligible, and in my market, First Time buyers in Ora...

That's right! The CalPERS program is a great loan option. To be eligible for the PERS program, a borrower needs to be either an Active, InActive, or Retired Member of either CalPERS, JRS (Judges Retirement System) or LRS (Legislators Retirement System). The CalPERS Program offers: •·    Competiti...

At least in my office, on November 14 we began getting new pricing for FHA loans that previously would have been priced as FHA Jumbo. In Orange County, CA, any FHA loan that was greater than $362,790 was considered FHA Jumbo and was priced almost .5% higher in interest rate. I actually have a new...

Last week, on November 6, FHA released Mortgagee Letter MORTGAGEE LETTER 2008-35 which announced the official increase in the national mortgage limit for all Home Equity Mortgages (HECM), which is the FHA version of the Reverse Mortgage. This increase will help eligible Reverse Mortgage borrowers...