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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 12/16/13
    First Name: Donn
    Last Name: Costa
    Organization: 1st Security Bank
    City: N/A
    State: N/A
    Attachment: N/A
    Number: 2013-N-18

  • Comment

    1) We lend primarily in the Seattle Washington area. Even though the median price is approximately $380,000 for King County a significant portion of homes are purchased above the conforming $417,000 loan limit in the Seattle/Bellevue Metro area. Reducing the amount to $400,000 would be negative for our a large part of our market.
    a. You should consider refining the limits to metro vs. rural county areas. There is a large difference in the price of a average home in Marysville, WA compared to the Seattle Metro area. A starter home in the Marysville, WA is about $275,000 vs. the Seattle Metro area where an average home is about $550,000. There is only about a 30 mile different between the two communities. Bigger picture there is much larger price difference of an average home in Louisiana vs. Seattle. You may want to consider maximum loan amounts based on the highest average home values in a zip code.

    2) What about the conforming jumbo limit? Is it going to stay at $506K? If this higher amount was to go away that would be very challenging for the market. People really like the fixed rate mortgage. Private loans seem to prefer adjustable rate mortgages.

    3) A six month notice is acceptable. If future possible reductions are based on home prices going further out than 6 months would be to difficult to accurately predict. If changes are based simply on what the loan limit will be regardless of value a multiyear schedule is fine.

    4) How do these limits affect FHA/VA financing?