Chicago Condo Directory

December 1, 2009 - It was only a week or so ago that we told you about Aqua having trouble with getting Fannie Mae approval for condo mortgages. The issue stemmed from the ratio of commercial versus residential space in this Chicago real estate development. It seems the percentage tips too much towards commercial with the hotel space, albeit unoccupied, and the 474 apartments, with 313 of those already rented. The 264 condos in Aqua are practically all sold out, but the equation doesn’t sit well with Fannie Mae.

To solve the problem at least temporarily, Magellan Development Group has announced that they have found a couple of lenders who will step up and provide nearly full financing for condo buyers. Magellan stated that letters with details about those lenders were sent to the buyers who have purchased through floor 69. Evidentially that is the highest floor currently ready for closings and occupancy at the moment.

Those two financial institutions are Harris Bank and MB Financial Bank. MB has been involved in special rate mortgages in other developments such as SoNo.

If no lenders were found would were willing to offer 90% or more financing, it could have possibly delayed some buyers from closing or completely prevented some sales from going through. With so much pricing competition among Condos In Chicago, developers need to make the most of every opportunity to make a sale and also to close it.

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November 6, 2009 - Fannie Mae is evidentially wanting to generate some income from all the condo and home owners who are heading for foreclosure and for whatever reason aren’t able to qualify for any mortgage modification. The new program being launched is called Deed For Lease. As the name implies, a homeowner facing foreclosure who surrenders the deed to their mortgage holder will be able to lease back the condo or house at market rate and not have to move, according to a recent press release from Fannie Mae. This allows the former homeowner to avoid the foreclosure on their record and be able to stay in the home.

In order to qualify for the Deed For Lease program, a homeowner or borrower has to be actually living in the foreclosed house and it be their primary home. There can’t be any other mortgages or liens filed on the home or condo either. And even tenants (someone renting the home from the owner) may also be able to qualify for the deal. In any case, you have to have proof that whatever the current market rate rent on the condo or house doesn’t exceed 31% of your gross income.

The leases will be available for up to 12 month periods. After that, you may be eligible for another 12 month renewal or get a month over month extension on the lease. And if the foreclosed condo or house is sold before the lease is up, the new buyer has to honor the terms. But after that lease is up, you’ll have to negotiate with the new owner, who could possibly not be interested in renewing your lease.

If that all sounds too complicated or you aren’t in danger of foreclosure and are just looking for a place to rent, there are lots of New Chicago Condos for rent or with rent-to-own programs being offered right now.

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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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