Did you know that many first time home buyers and retirees seek to buy condominiums as a solution to more affordable home ownership? They do.
Did you know that condominiums make up about 9% of U.S. home sales? How about FHA insuring a really huge percentage of U.S. home sales? I bet you knew that one.
Well, check this out. The condominium share of the FHA portfolio is only 4.1%. You would think that it would be 9% wouldn’t you?
The ridiculous, time consuming, expensive and burdensome FHA approval process for condominiums means that only about 10% of those attempted make it through the process each year.
With the continuing low inventory and rising prices, this situation forces prospective buyers of condominiums out of that market. Not only that market but any market. An obvious source of appropriate and affordable home ownership is being denied to many families because of nothing more than government bureaucracy.
Are you ready for some good news? Congress is actually doing something about this! How about that? Well, one house of congress is. In February, the House passed the “Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act,” by a unanimous 427 to 0 vote! Isn’t that amazing? Everybody agreed this needed to be done!
This act will create a number of efficiencies in the federally assisted housing portfolio, including streamlining processes and increasing housing opportunities.
Now the ball is in the Senate’s court. So far they have done nothing with it. If you think this is an important thing that is good for hopeful home buyers and the country, I urge you to let you Senators know that you want them to get this thing through the Senate.
Whew! Reading this over I can see I got a bit emotional. This kind of stuff can get me stirred up.
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