In a letter to the Trump administration, the Realtors trade group said the administration should reopen the Rural Housing Services, a branch of the USDA, to address a backlog of USDA-guaranteed loans, which are home loans guaranteed by the agency for people who typically live in rural areas. USDA announced it was temporarily reopening Farm Services Agency offices, a separate branch of the USDA, on Wednesday to process farming loans during the shutdown.
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https://www.scotsmanguide.com/News/2019/01/Realtors-call-for-restart-of-the-USDA-loan-program/
“The USDA loan is the one that is 100 percent you don't need a down payment,” Moberly explained. “So of course that is a very popular loan. But at the same time, obviously we'd rather get you closed and into a home. So if that's not going to be the case where the shutdown doesn't stop, then we need to move you to a different program.”
Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs home loans have not seen an impact locally and are still closing on time. Once other loan programs are affected, Moberly said the impact of the shutdown will become more of a concern.
USDA originators have told Scotsman Guide News they haven’t been able to close on loans that didn’t have commitments from the USDA prior to the shutdown. The USDA-loan program is relatively small in scale. It is designed for lower- to mid-income households in specific geographic areas that require up to 100 percent financing.
According to the American Enterprise Institute, USDA guaranteed 103,000 home-purchase loans and 1,200 refinances in 2018 through October.
The Community Home Lenders Association (CHLA), which represents nonbanks, also has called on the Trump administration to restart the program.
“The shutdown has cast a pall over our members' ability to originate RHS [Rural Housing Services] loans for their borrowers, and just yesterday a [CHLA] member indicated they can't get an RHS-loan payoff done and RHS is not responding,” said CHLA Executive Director Scott Olson. Olson said the shutdown has also begun to cause “headaches” for lenders in programs not directly impacted by the shutdown.
“The mortgage industry is trying to do workarounds of various things, but the longer the shutdown goes on, the harder it is to do that,” Olson said.
https://www.scotsmanguide.com/News/2019/01/Realtors-call-for-restart-of-the-USDA-loan-program/
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