2017!
Does that sound as odd to you as it does to me? Seems like it was only yesterday that HUD finally lifted the county by county limits on the HECM program and we went to a national limit of $417,000 that was raised just a year later to $625,500 and just stayed there but that was actually 2008/2009.
Just last week when we were worrying about the Y2K bug, when all the computers were supposed to go haywire in the year 2000. And just a year or two ago when I still had brown hair but I digress and I am not divulging how long ago that was! ;>)
I did want to take a moment to say thank you to all the thousands of customers that we have had the privilege of working with in the past, at the present and we look forward to working with many more in the future. We hope that 2017 is the best year ever for you and your families and that they just keep getting better from here on out.
There are a couple of notable changes that we know of on the horizon or have already happened that we need to let you know aboutâ?¦
The first thing we want to tell you all is that HUD just increased the lending limit to $636,150 from $625,500 on the reverse mortgage program. I know, I know, this is not an overly large increase but it is an increase and not a decrease so we will gladly take what we can get. If your home is worth $636,150 or more, you will now receive a higher benefit on the loan than you did last year. If you have a property of this value and you received a quote last year and youâ?Tre interested to see how it affects your benefits, please donâ?Tt hesitate to let us know and we will amend your proposal.
Secondly, HUD has announced that they are considering bringing back the â?oSpot Approvalâ? process for condominiums. This would be fantastic news for condo owners because while it would not automatically make all condos eligible, it would allow many homeowners to get reverse mortgages who were shut out of the program when the project had to be approved before even the first loan could be closed for an FHA HECM reverse loan.
I donâ?Tt want to give the old spot approval guidelines because we donâ?Tt know if they will change the parameters but as soon as we know that HUD has again approved the use of the Spot Approval process and the exact parameters, we will post and send out an email on the subject.
Finally, we want to remind everyone that the market has been very volatile since the election. Weâ?Tve seen 2017 interest rates rise and bond prices fall, a combination that makes pricing reverse mortgages disadvantageous for borrowers.
No one can tell the future and there is no way to know if the rapid rise we saw at the end of the year was just a blip on the screen that will level back off or if they will continue to rise. But if you are thinking about a reverse mortgage, there is still no time like the present and we would like nothing more than to be the company to help you with your needs.
Have a Happy and a Safe 2017