Luxury Orlando Real Estate Resource

McLEAN, Va. - Nov. 30, 2009 - Average rates for 30-year fixed mortgages fell last week, matching a record low set last spring and more than a full percentage point below what they were a year ago, Freddie Mac said Wednesday.

Rates for 30-year mortgages averaged 4.78 percent last week, down from 4.83 percent the previous week and equaling the record low reached the week of April 30.

Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 5.97 percent.

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WASHINGTON - Dec. 1, 2009 - The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) proposed on Monday stricter rules for lenders to reduce its risk and assure it can cover future losses.

The FHA has insured nearly a quarter of all new loans made this year, and about 80 percent of that business is from first-time homebuyers. But delinquencies on these mortgages are rising.

As of the end of September, about 18 percent of FHA borrowers were at least one payment behind or in foreclosure, compared with 14 percent for all loans, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The FHA proposes to require lenders to have a net worth of at least $1 million in the first year and $2.5 million within three years. That's up from the original requirement of $250,000.

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Osceola County residents waiting to receive homebuyer assistance through the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program will have to wait until the county receives the green light from the state, a process state officials said has been put on hold because the county has yet to complete the application process.

The move has angered county officials, who said the state is to blame for the backlogged application because the Florida Department of Community Affairs has not been clear on eligibility requirements for potential applicants. The lack of guidance, county officials said, is holding up the application.

 "We've done everything that we're supposed to do, yet they don't have some rules for us to follow," Commissioner John Quiñones said.

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SAVANNAH, Ga. - Dec. 1, 2009 - The Atlantic hurricane season ended Monday with barely a whimper: Not a single hurricane came ashore in the United States.

Since June, when the season began, just nine named storms developed. Only three of them became hurricanes, and those stayed out at sea or weakened before passing over land.


"We had a great, great year," said Chris Vecsey, a salesman at Top Gun Tackle in Orange Beach, Ala., near where Tropical Storm Ida slogged ashore in November. "Last year we had Gustav and Ike and a couple of other storms that didn't even hit here. And with all the hype, it ruined us. It just didn't happen this year."

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WASHINGTON - Dec. 1, 2009 - Federal flood insurance has long been cheap in Florida, at least in comparison to private and state windstorm coverage. That may not last.

With the National Flood Insurance Program running some $17 billion in the red after Hurricane Katrina losses, federal budget watchers have expressed growing concerns about its financial stability and rate structure.

The stakes for Florida, with 2.2 million policies, are considerable.

"It's called national flood insurance, but in reality if you take Florida and Texas, you're talking about more than half of the program," said Erwann Michel-Kerjan, a risk management expert at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania who authored a recent study on the flood rates in Florida.

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