I love getting questions through my nifty Meebo widget in the sidebar; thank you. The title question came today.
An answer to the question can be found here:
HUD is required by the law to publish the new mortgage limits by March 14, 2008. These new limits will be effective for FHA immediately upon publication. NAR developed estimates of the temporary FHA and GSE single-family loan limits. This data can be found here (pdf).
The NAR sent a letter to HUD on February 13, 2008, urging HUD to implement the limits as quickly as possible.
The implementation schedule is complicated by the fact that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be using the same limits above $417,000 and Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) Director James B. Lockhart, III (Fannie and Freddie’s regulator) noted in a recent speech that implementation could take up to three months with an additional month for partial enactment. Mr. Lockhart offered no explanation as to what partial enactment means. NAR sent a letter to OFHEO on February 13, 2008, urging immediate adoption of the new loan limits.
To date, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have not indicated their implementation plans once limits are established by OFHEO.
As I’ve been getting more questions from readers, I’ve added a category just for that purpose – Reader Questions.
