Yowell Team Blog

From somd.com ...

"LEONARDTOWN, Md. (March 25, 2008) -- The St. Mary's County government today announced that they have suspended wet season perc testing for all soil types until the next wet season which is not expected until 2009. The announcement was made by the Environmental Health Services division of the Health Department." Read more

Well, Spring has sprung!  Everywhere you look, flowers are blooming, grass is sprouting, birds are singing...and the smell of fresh manure is in the air!  To some of us, the fertilizer that farmers spread on their fields is familiar and just a part of living in the country.  To others, it's an offensive, unwelcome stench.  However, local governments believe that preserving Southern MD's rural character is so important that they've enacted ordinances to give notice to residents that farmers have the right to farm.  The existence of these ordinances must now be disclosed to home buyers: see sample disclosure.

Finally!  HUD just released new FHA and conforming loan limits.  Hopefully, this will spark more activity in the market.  Increases were seen in all three counties in Southern MD.  In St. Mary's County, the FHA limit went up but the conforming limit was left where it was.  This is because the powers that be don't consider St. Mary's to be a high-cost area like the other two counties.  I know a lot of you would disagree with that!

County	FHA Limit	Conforming Conventional Limit
Calvert	$729,750	$729,750
Charles	$729,750	$729,750
St. Mary's	$400,000	$417,000 (unchanged)

From the National Association of Realtors website...

"WASHINGTON, March 06, 2008 - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today published new FHA and conforming loan limits, based on median home prices as mandated by the Economic Stimulus Act signed by President Bush in February. New loan limits for FHA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now calculated at 125 percent of the HUD published median prices, with a floor of $271,050 and $417,000, respectively, not to exceed $729,750. NAR expects the impact on the housing market to be significant because of the infusion of capital into the mortgage market, which should result in lower interest rates across the board. In addition, there will be a direct impact on high-cost areas that previously required borrowers to take out costlier jumbo mortgages.

NAR research points out that increasing FHA loan limits will help an additional 138,000 Americans achieve the dream of home ownership and will allow nearly 200,000 homeowners to refinance and potentially keep their home. In addition, NAR believes that increasing the loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will bolster the housing finance market, which continues to be severely stressed, by providing an immediate infusion of much needed liquidity to the nation’s mortgage market.

An economic impact study conducted by NAR in January 2008 estimated that increasing conforming loan limits would result in as many as 500,000 refinanced loans and could help reduce foreclosures by as much as 210,000. In addition, over 300,000 additional home sales could be generated, housing inventory would be reduced and home prices would be strengthened by two to three percentage points.

Why HUD Took This Action
HUD was mandated in the Economic Stimulus Act to publish new loan limits within 30 days of the bill's signing by President Bush on February 13.

How HUD Calculates Its Median Home Prices
HUD median home prices differ from those published by NAR. That is because HUD uses a variety of sources and different areas to calculate the median home price.

Who Will be Affected
Increased loan limits will have a wide impact. The added liquidity in the mortgage market will help to make mortgages more easily available. Receiving direct helped will be borrowers in high cost areas who previously had no recourse except high- cost jumbo loans, and those with high-cost loans who can refinance into lower interest rate loans."
http://www.realtor.org/GAPublic.nsf/Pages/economic_stimulus_fha_limits?OpenDocument