Houston Mortgage Blog

Going through the underwriting process can be draining and frustrating but at least it will be over in less than a month, right? Well that used to be the case; not so much over the past 2months.  Underwriting times across the nation have been extended at a minimum 2weeks to in some cases 2-3 months beyond the typical underwriting time of 30days. So if you are financing a purchase that needs to close on time read on and avoid some of the common problems identified below.

That’s right. No exaggeration here. Starting this past Monday April 9th all FHA loan files will reflect a slew of new changes NONE of which are here to favor the home buyer. Through these changes FHA has tighten the purse strings on financing and some pundits, including yours truly, believe it’s because FHA just cannot handle the current risk of continuing to absorb close to 8x the volume they used to handle prior to the sub-prime crisis. As some in the industry now call it, “FHA IS the new subprime” or at least it used to be. Starting in early 2009 FHA started making major changes to their underwriting requirements and steadily increased its mortgage insurance costs but nothing as financially drastically as these changes.

As one of the best mortgage companies Houston has to offer, at HomeStart Capital we come across many cases where a loan approval becomes difficult to obtain. These difficulties could be avoided if borrowers had been informed in advance.