Some major changes went into effect today for FHA loans for Santa Clara County Condominiums.
Elimination of “Spot Loan” Approval Process
If a condo project was not approved by FHA, a “spot approval” was allowed just for financing one unit. This process has been eliminated as of today. Now the entire project has to be approved either directly by HUD (process called HRAP) or by a Direct Endorsed Lender (process called DELRAP). With all the liabilities involved around the process most of the direct endorsed lenders would prefer HUD to directly approve the project. This can cause major delays at 2 ends:
- Collecting all the required documents from Home Owner’s association (HOA)
- HUD’s review of those documents to approve/reject the project
Dont be surprised if FHA loans on un-approved condominium projects take 60 days or more to close at least till the time HUD comes up with faster turn times or a more efficient process.
FHA Concentration Requirements
- The FHA concentration (Percentage of units which has FHA loans in a project) requirement will be increased temporarily to 50 percent.
- The FHA concentration may be increased up to 100 percent if the project meets all of the basic condominium standards plus some of the additional items.
Owner-Occupancy Requirements
- At least 50 percent of the units in a project must be owner-occupied or sold to owners who intend to occupy the units.
- Vacant or tenant-occupied real estate owned (REOs), including properties that are bank owned, may be excluded from the calculation of the required owner-occupancy percentage.
Pre-Sale Requirements
- In the case of new construction, the pre-sale requirement will be reduced temporarily to 30 percent.
As of today, only 7 condominium projects are approved in city of Santa Clara. If you are a buyer or a seller and would like to know if a certain project is approved or not, call me at 408.905.6261 or email me at Shashank@ArcusLending.com
Also read - FHA is changing guidelines for condominiums
