The new FHASecure program is not offering much help to Californians. The problem is that loan limits on FHA still max out bout $362,000. How many houses in California are that price range? Not many. So while FHASecure is a lovely idea it leaves Americans in the more expensive areas of the country out in the cold still.
Here is an excerpt from an recent article on that subject written by Matt Wrye over at the San Bernardino County Sun:
The Inland Empire is ground zero for the housing meltdown.
But you’d never know it by looking at a new federal program that seems to slight California homeowners.
Figures provided by the Federal Housing Administration show that California homeowners make up only 3 percent of total loans offered nationwide under a new bailout program designed to help them avoid foreclosures. Inland Empire borrowers make up just under 1 percent – in an area that reports the third-biggest number of foreclosures in the nation.
Troubled Inland Empire homeowners looking at the possibility of losing their homes are finding it tough to qualify for the federal program.
The Federal Housing Administration promised in August to help 240,000 families avoid foreclosure through its so-called FHA Secure plan.
Experts say California’s higher- than-average loan amounts confound the issue.
“We have people calling, but when you look at what their real income is and what their debts are, it doesn’t pencil out,” said Will Herring, a local mortgage broker and board member of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers, Inland Empire Chapter in Rancho Cucamonga. “They don’t conform to FHA guidelines.”
So far, 290 subprime borrowers – 13 of them in default – throughout San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties have secured refinancing through the program.