Monday, March 02, 2009

Portland Downtown Living: New guidelines for Fannie Mae condominium loans

Portland Downtown Living: New guidelines for Fannie Mae condominium loans: "Effective March 1, 2009, Fannie Mae is implementing condo guideline changes “in light of the current condo market and the need to mitigate risk on condo loans”. Some of these changes may affect a buyer’s ability to obtain conventional condo loans for new and established condos."
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Check out this summary from the article:
"* For new construction and newly converted condo developments, 70% of the units must be pre-sold (closed or under contract). This is being increased from 51%.
* No more than 15% of a condo project units can be more than 30 days delinquent on HOA dues. This is an existing guideline that is now being applied to new condo projects. The calculation was also changed from being 15% of HOA fee payments to 15% of total units.
* Fidelity insurance will be required for condos with 20 or more units, ensuring that homeowner association funds are protected. Presently, this requirement applies to new projects and is now being extended to include established condos.
* A requirement that borrowers must now obtain a condo-owners insurance policy unless the master policy provides interior unit coverage; coverage may not be less than 20% of the assessed value. A condo-owners policy, known as an HO-6 policy, covers personal property, personal liability, and the physical unit from the studs and in. Many policies also include special assessment coverage or the option to include a special assessment coverage rider.
* No more than 10% of a project can be owned by a single entity.
* No more than 20% of a project can consist of non-residential space.
* The homeowners association must have at least 10% of its budgeted income designated for replacement reserves and adequate funds budgeted for the insurance deductible."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Evan:
It is important to note that many of these "requirements" are not new, but have been in place for some time. What is new is their application to properties in development.

In addition, the reporting on this in the press has been somewhat alarmed and alarming. As a result, we reached out to Fannie Mae for further clarification which I addressed in my blog back on February 12th (cai.blogware.com). There is a link in that item to a further analysis of these new guidelines.