The current real estate market is providing plenty of amazing
opportunities for buyers to get great deals on condominiums around the
country. However, the recent turmoil in the financial markets has
caused financial institutions to tighten their lending guidelines and
make it more difficult to obtain
financing on condos. It is even more
difficult in cities that experienced the biggest booms and busts and
which now have lots of troubled projects and are seeing the highest
foreclosure rates.
There is a bright spot in this real estate
market and there are ways to still take advantage of the deals being
offered now. Fannie Mae and FHA have recently released lists of condo
projects around the country that are approved for financing. These
approved projects are then eligible for
government backed loans and
smaller down payments for interested buyers. These loans usually only
require the buyer to put down 3.5 percent and allow for a speedier
qualification and purchase process.
The condominium projects that are approved by Fannie Mae must have less than 15
percent of condo owners in the building delinquent on their
condo or Home Ownership Association fees. In addition, the association
must have enough funds on hand to meet the deductible of their
insurance policy. Other conditions include the following: At least
70 percent of new condo units must be
pre-sold, at least 10 percent of
the operating budget must be set aside for reserves, projects can not
contain more than 20 percent non-residential space, and no more than 10
percent of units may be owned by a single entity.
These
requirements help to insure that the condo projects are healthy and
that the individual units are generally pretty solid investments. Condo
units in approved buildings are also usually much easier to obtain
financing for because the mortgage can be guaranteed by Fannie Mae.
Buying or renting in a approved project helps to insure that you living or investing in a project with long term viability, even though the market may be down now.
For
a full list of Fannie Mae and FHA approved buildings or to obtain
financing for a condo unit please visit the Finance Center on Condo.com
by
Clicking Here.