Changes In The Usda Rural Housing Loan Process

By Author: Vikram Kumar
Total Articles: 9466
Comment this article

Very recently, the USDA announced numerous changes to the popular loan program that is aimed at rural homebuyers. These changes are part of the expansive overhaul that will help add some muscle to rural housing markets. They will increase the availability of the rural home loans and boost construction of new homes in various rural areas. These improvements will go a long way in creating more jobs and enabling more people to actually participate in this USDA rural housing loan Program. The changes will add a notable amount of capital to the rural areas and rural Americans will be presented with more opportunities.

This will help them make wise financing decisions that are the basis of the prosperity for their families. All these changes will come into effect from 1 September 2014 and will make numerous improvements to the USDA rural housing loan, Single Family housing options. Amongst other things, these expand the kinds of lenders who will be eligible to participate. With this rule change, any lending entity that is supervised and regulated by the FDIC, the NCUA, the Office of Comptroller of Currency, the Federal Reserve ...
... Banks and the FHFB may underwrite the loans that have been guaranteed by the USDA loan process.

This will allow various credit unions and small community banks to participate in this government guaranteed loan program. At this point of time, all these entities do not fall in the eligible lenders category. In a different policy change, borrowers can now choose the home loan terms that are shorter than the earlier 30 years. This change is a first and many people might opt for it. This will lead to significant cost savings for those borrowers who qualify for higher payments and who wish to pay less interest and pay-off their loan faster, which will benefit them.

As a whole, all these changes will make the housing loans more easily available to residents of the underserved communities. These are the ones that the USDA’s StrikeForce initiative targets. Via StrikeForce, the USDA staff will actively work with local, community and state officials in a bid to increase awareness of the USDA loan process and the programs eligibility and criteria. This will go a long way in helping communities, residents and businesses. As part of this overhaul, the rural development has also started an entire series of enhancements that will automate processes, reduce the loan approval times and reduce paperwork as well.

There are some additional improvements too. Lenders might consider the energy efficiency of a home as a compensating factor while they are underwriting any mortgage application. Energy efficiency is a very attractive feature for sellers and homebuyers. Energy efficient homes are increasingly the preferred choice and help the country reduce its dependence on global oil. Resultantly, it lowers utility costs for the homeowners. Reduced utility costs help in improving the local economy as they directly increase the disposable income of consumers. Lenders as well as borrowers will no longer be required to initiate any separate construction and any permanent loans for their new homes. Instead, there will be only one closing for each loan. This referred to as a construction-to-permanent loan.

Resource box:

USDA Loans Texas will incorporate the changes in the USDA Loan Process . USDA Rural Housing Loan is an excellent option for people who want to live in rural areas.