Columbia Home Purchase Loans Low FHA Rates for Maryland New Home Financing
Columbia Home Buying with FHA Loans
Maryland home buyers take advantage new opportunities in Columbia with low rate FHA home purchase loans securing fixed payments..Columbia is a planned community in Howard County, Maryland. It is a suburb of Baltimore, and to a lesser degree, Washington D.C. Columbia is the most populous census designated place in Maryland, after Baltimore. Columbia is located midway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. in Howard County. Downtown Baltimore is 20-30 minutes away, while Washington is a 30-40 minute drive. In 2008, Money magazine ranked Columbia (together with Ellicott City) #8 out of the 100 "Best Places to Live" in the United States. (Source: Wikipedia)
The FHA temporarily raised the loan limit to $560,000 for a single family home in Columbia, so now is the best time for FHA home buying in Columbia. You get low, fixed interest rates with FHA. Plus, you can do a FHA streamline refinance if interest rates drop. You can’t get Columbia home financing on 97 percent loan to value under conventional financing, and the lending standards for FHA Columbia home purchase loans are much more lenient. A FHA Maryland home purchase loan only requires a 3% down payment and a 580 FICO credit score. Conventional loans require at least a 660 score.
Columbia Home Buying Incentives
The state of Maryland Department of Housing & Community Development has several homebuyer incentive programs including two CDA More House 4 Less Mortgage Programs: low-interest mortgage loans and the Downpayment and Settlement Expense Loan Program (DSELP), state-owned homes for sale, the Homeownership for Individuals with Disabilities program and the Ground Rent Redemption Program.
Buying a Foreclosure Home in Columbia
Banks and others holding foreclosed property have concluded "we've got to move things" and are finally willing to slash prices, says Thomas Lawler, a housing economist in Leesburg, VA. The longer properties sit unsold, the longer the lender must keep paying monthly expenses, including insurance and property taxes. This is why you can get a good deal on a Columbia foreclosure. "If you can't make 20%, 25% off these deals, you're wasting your time," said Marc S. English (a foreclosure investor from Texas), who occasionally buys and sells homes to supplement his regular work with a commercial builder.
