Maryland home loan incentives remain strong for first time home buyers with tax credits and low FHA mortgage rates. Maryland lenders are offering fixed mortgage rates at 4.5%! FHA Home Loan Services provides the lowest rate home financing in Maryland communities to expand home ownership across the state. Maryland is located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia and West Virginia to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east. Maryland is a life sciences hub with over 350 biotechnology firms making it the third largest such cluster in the nation. (Source: Wikipedia)
Maryland home values remain in flux depending upon the county. The median price of a home in Maryland is $211,500. Sales have been down, and foreclosures have risen to epidemic levels.
As a result of the housing and foreclosure crises, conventional lenders have tightened their lending standards. Now, you have to have at least a credit score of 660, if you’re putting 20% down and at least 700 if you have less than 20% start-up equity. The minimum FICO credit score for FHA loans is only 580. For Maryland home purchase loans, you only need a 3% down payment. And, even with past credit problems, you still get low, fixed interest rates with FHA. Low rate Maryland mortgage loans won’t be available forever, so talk to your loan officer about refinancing as soon as possible
Maryland Cities ranked by population
Baltimore 651,154
Columbia 88,254
Silver Spring 76,540
Dundalk 62,306
Wheaton-Glenmont 57,694
Ellicott City 56,397
Germantown 55,419
Bethesda 55,277
Frederick 52,816
Gaithersburg 52,451
Bowie 52,181
Towson 51,793
Aspen Hill 50,228
Maryland Home Buying with FHA
FHA home buying in Maryland makes good financial sense, and now is the time to buy. Plus, once you have a FHA loan, you can do a FHA streamline refinance if the interest rates drop, which typically doesn’t require an appraisal or any credit underwriting. This keeps the costs of refinancing low.
FHA is a popular loan for first time homebuyers. But you don’t have to be a first-time homebuyer to get FHA financing. FHA home buying offers many benefits including up to 6% seller closing assistance and loan limits up to $729,750 in some Maryland locations. But, these increased loan limits are only available until October 1, 2008 before dropping to $625,000—the new permanent limit set by the new Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which was passed on July 30, 2008.
The FHA down payment requirement is changing to 3.5% beginning 2009. And, seller-funded down payment assistance programs will no longer be allowed as of October 1, 2008. So, now is the time to get your Maryland home purchase loan through FHA.
Buying a Foreclosure Home in Maryland
The judicial foreclosure process typically forecloses Maryland homes. It can take up to three months from the time the homeowner gets the notice of default to when it goes to the foreclosure auction. Anytime before the home goes to auction, it’s considered to be a pre-foreclosure. Once it hits the auction block, it’s a foreclosure. If the house doesn’t sell at the auction, it reverts back to the lender and becomes a real estate owned (REO) or bank owned property. A home repossessed and reverted back to the Veterans Administration (VA) is a VA REO. A home that was purchased with a FHA loan that reverts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is a HUD home. You can typically buy foreclosed homes and REOs for 10 to 50% less than the market value.
You can buy a home during any stage of foreclosure and when it becomes a REO. The investment is least risky in the REO stage because it’s already reverted back to the lender and the lender will typically pay any liens that are on the property. During the pre-foreclosure and foreclosure stages, there may be liens that you don’t know about.
