by Moe Bedard
After the real estate crash decimated the mortgage market, a tiny government agency has assumed an outsize role in the housing recovery. In 2006, the Federal Housing Administration—which insures home loans against default—backed just 3 percent of new home-purchase mortgages.
Shaun Donovan, secretary of housing and urban development, responded to such criticism yesterday by outlining a [...]
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by Moe Bedard
Legislation last year nearly doubled the maximum mortgage the FHA could insure, to $729,750 for single-unit properties and almost $1 million for multi-unit ones. As a result, the FHA is moving into expensive markets, especially on the West Coast, in which it previously had little or no role. Even some fairly fancy condo buildings are [...]
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