The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a new Mortgagee Letter 2009-19 last week, detailing new changes in the condominium approval process.  While the new guidelines abandon the one-year waiting period before considering loan applications on condo units, they have added new restrictions. The big thing to remember when looking at condos is that either the unit itself or the entire building has to be FHA approved

• Units in condo hotels, time shares, houseboat developments, and projects where there are multiple dwellings inside single condominium units are all prohibited
• FHA won’t insure units in condominiums where more than 25% of the total space is allotted to commercial uses, it will reject applications from any property that it deems not “to be primarily residential” in character.
• No loans if more than 10% of the units are owned by investors.
• FHA won’t approve loans where less than 50 % of the total units already have been sold, or where less than 50 % of the units are owner-occupied
• If more than 30% of the unit owners in a project took out FHA-backed loans, the agency doesn’t want to do any more business in that condominium.
• FHA won’t insure units in buildings located within a thousand feet of a major highway, three thousand feet of a dump, landfill or EPA Superfund site.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight

Buyers looking at Condos might not be aware that the unit they are looking at is not available  for FHA financing,  if you are considering FHA financing on a Condominium, check  out https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condlook.cfm to see if the unit is even eligible before  you get your hopes up on a particular unit.

 Did you know that there are 30 Islands in Narragansett Bay? That was my trivia question this week, and it got me thinking  about all of the wonderful things that the Narragansett Bay offers our state.  The Bay’s three largest islands are Aquidneck (Newport), Conanicut (Jamestown), and Prudence, but there are also 30 smaller islands  dotting the Bay.

The Bay provides a quality of life that attracts businesses, industries and more than 12 million visitors each year, generating thousands of jobs and billions of dollars for the regional economy. For commercial fishermen, it is their livlihood, producing about 8 million pounds of quahogs annually, with a value of $6 million. Millions of people in Rhode Island and Massachusetts live, work and play around the Bay. More than 100,000 fishermen and over 32,000 recreational boats cruise the bay each year.

And this got me to thinking about my friend Jonathan Stone at Save The Bay. Founded in 1970, Save The Bay and its supporters work to protect, restore, and explore Narragansett Bay and its watershed. They have enjoyed remarkable success restoring the habitats of over 60 species of fish and shellfish, 200 bird species, and countless seals, dolphins and sea turtles. 

As part of the new long-range plan, Save The Bay is addressing Massachusetts-based pollution with the Massachusetts Project. The project is led by Ira Magaziner and staffed by volunteers, their objective is to  research pollution problems in the Blackstone River region and the Mount Hope Bay, Taunton River, and Fall River region.

 This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

 Save the Bay is one of the great organizations in Rhode Island that really impact all of our residents, and is largely a grass roots organization and relies on volunteers. Save The Bay volunteers come from all ages and backgrounds yet  all share a passion for the  Bay. To find out how you can help save the bay, contact Stephany at 401-272-3540, x130