What’s the deal on the FHA Modernization Bill or the FHA Expanding Homeownership Bill that is supposed to help manufactured home owners?
Speculated to have been packaged, sealed and signed by the President during the first quarter of 2008, the long-awaited, long promised FHA Expanding Homeownership/Modernization bill is still being tossed around in two different versions, one in the Senate and one in the house and many think it is still slow in coming, if ever. The reason this impacts many manufactured home owners is that many homes that will be newly cleared to qualify for FHA-insured loans are located in manufactured home parks and communities. Also since a large number of parks are predominately senior communities, the FHA-insured Reverse Mortgage product holds increasing appeal to them in their retirement years. A Reverse Mortgage is a loan against a home that is not payable until the homeowner dies, sells the home or permanently moves out. Reverse Mortgages allow homeowners age 62 and older to turn the equity in their home into cash without having to move or make a monthly mortgage payment. One of its benefits to the retiree is there is no minimum credit or income requirement to qualify for a reverse mortgage—just the appraisal value of the home. Since the majority of the reverse mortgage loans are FHA insured, this bill directly impacts a large number of manufactured home owners that live in parks. (more…)
