Chicago Condo Directory

November 5, 2009 - There is at least a little good news for Chicago condo buyers. Back in the summer, FHA stated that they were changing the rules on their approval process for new Chicago real estate developments with condos. The new rules would have gone into effect on October 1st of this year. FHA had then pushed the changed back to November 2nd and now has announced that it will be December 7th before they go into effect. Also, according to an Inman news release, some of those new rules regarding approval will not be as limiting as they first announced.

FHA had planned to cut down on the amount of approved condos loans in any one building. They would go down from 50% to only 30% of the total. But they have decided to reverse that decision and will keep on approving as many as 50% of the loans in a building and if the building is “well established” FHA could back 100% of the units with at least a 10% reserve. However, the rule that 50% of the condos in a building have to be owner-occupied still applies.

Another new rule that would have gone into effect was that all FHA approved condo buildings would have to be re-certified once every two years. That rule alone could have potentially drastically slowed down or even completely derailed many condos sales because of the extended wait period. But FHA amended that change to state that condo buildings that have already been approved will not have to be re-certified.

More developers are applying for FHA approval in an effort to make it easier for buyers to get financing, so this has to be good news for them. The list of Condos In Chicago that are already FHA approved keeps getting longer, so buyers have a pretty good choice of units available.

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