Steve Eckhardt's Tampa Area Blog

For the second time in less than 3 months, Fannie Mae announced changes to its mortgage guidelines. 

The updates are meant to reduce the mortgage firm's overall risk.

The first major change is with respect to credit scoring.  All Fannie Mae loans -- whether underwritten electronically or manually -- require a 620 credit score minimum.  There are very few exceptions.

A second change relates to loans with private mortgage insurance.  Homeowners whose loan-to-value exceeds 80 percent now have a choice:

1. Accept higher mortgage insurance premiums month-after-month
2. Accept a one-time fee paid at closing to compensate for higher risk

Both options pass higher costs to consumers.Then, a third change relates to maximum debt-to-income ratio.  As announced, Fannie Mae will no longer approve expense ratios exceeding 45 percent except with very strong assets and credit to back it up.  In no case can expense ratios exceed 50 percent.

There are other changes, too, including the elimination of seldom-used mortgage products and new risk-based pricing on "expanded level" approvals.

Fannie Mae implements its updates during the weekend of December 12. 

So, if you're going to need (or want) a new mortgage later this year, consider moving up your timeframe to October or November.  Once the guidelines change, getting approved for a mortgage is going to be tougher.

Sales of homes for more than $1 million are 50 percent lower than their all-time high, in July 2005, according to the firm MDA DataQuick. That's twice as bad as the downturn for housing of all price tags in the same time period.  There's a definite flip side to that market statistic, though: If you're fortunate enough to still have money, there's likely never been a better time to acquire "luxury" property at bargain rates. Such homebuyers should be able to get roughly 20 percent "more house" than they did in recent years, Josh Brian Losh of luxuryrealestate.com told the AP.

Find your luxury home at www.TheFloridaAuthority.com

Tampa Bay home sales rose 17 percent between August 2008 and August 2009, but slowed from their relatively brisk pace in July. Realtors reported 2,370 sales in August, up from 2,029 a year earlier. The median sales price declined 17 percent the past year from $173,900 to $144,600.

Visit www.SearchForTampaHomes.com to have listings delivered directly to your e-mail.

Are you looking at homes for sale in Tampa Bay and feeling overwhelmed by the choices? Back in the Dark Ages before the Internet (1986 or so), if you wanted to look at a house, you had to call a real estate agent, find out the address and then physically drive to the house. Thanks to the Internet, however, you can start narrowing down your choices before you ever talk to your agent.

 What do you need to know?

Looking online can give you the information you want to know about the homes for sale in Tampa Bay. However, if you just go surfing on the Web, that information can be as overwhelming as the number of choices. Before you start shopping online, make a list of the things that are important to you about the city or neighborhood in which you want to live, such as: 

• What are the average property taxes in the neighborhood?
• What is the average utility cost for the home?
• What is the neighborhood like?
• How high is the crime rate in the neighborhood?
• What is the average climate of the city?
• What is the unemployment rate of the city?
• How good are the schools?

 Once you have your list of questions, go online with an eye to answering them. Here is a list of links that might help you on your quest for information:

 My Government Website - Sunshine Review: Here you can find a list of cities with official websites. Choose the city you're looking for and be magically transported by way of the Internet to that city's official website. You'll find all the great stuff that calls people to move to a particular city, including attractions, businesses, restaurants and beautiful housing developments.

 City Data: City Data is just that - a website with nothing but data on U.S. cities. You'll find the nice and not so nice information about any city. Crime rates, shortest commute, weather patterns and more, all at your fingertips. The only drawback is that the information is two years old.

 Interest: Interest.com will show you the current mortgage interest rates for the area you're interested in.

By gathering all this information, you have a much better chance of choosing one of the homes for sale in Tampa that fits your needs. Once you have it all, you can search online or take the information to your real estate agent and get help with your house hunting.  An experienced agent is worth their weight in gold! 

 Are you looking for the perfect house?  Let me help. Call me today at 813-765-1182 or email me at steve@TheFloridaAuthority.com  for more information.  You can also visit www.SearchForTampaHomes.com and we'll e-mail listings matching your criteria as soon as they hit the market!

Contract activity for pending home sales has risen for six straight months, a pattern not seen since the index began in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors®.  The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in July, increased 3.2% to 97.6 from a reading of 94.6 in June, and is 12.0% higher than July 2008 when it was 87.1.  The index is at the highest level since June 2007 when it was 100.7.  In the South, pending home sales activity rose 3.1% to an index of 103.8 in July and is 12.0% above July 2008.

Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-09-01/pending-home-sales-on-a-roll-up-for-sixth-straight-month/#ixzz0PxPfzOBQ