FHA's mortgage insurance programs help low- and
moderate-income families become homeowners by lowering some of
the costs of their mortgage loans. FHA mortgage insurance also
encourages mortgage companies to make loans to otherwise
creditworthy borrowers and projects that might not be able to
meet conventional underwriting requirements, by protecting the
mortgage company against loan default on mortgages for
properties that meet certain minimum requirements--including
manufactured homes, single-family and multifamily properties,
and some health-related facilities.
Section 203(b) is the centerpiece of FHA's single-family
insurance programs. It is the successor of the program that
helped save homeowners from default in the 1930s, that helped
open the suburbs for returning veterans in the 1940s and 1950s,
and that helped shape the modern mortgage finance system. Today,
FHA One- to Four-Family Mortgage Insurance is still an important
tool through which the Federal Government expands homeownership
opportunities for first-time homebuyers and other borrowers who
would not otherwise qualify for conventional loans on affordable
terms, as well as for those who live in underserved areas where
mortgages may be harder to get. In FY 1997, FHA insured more
than 790,000 homes, valued at almost $60 billion, under this
program. FHA currently insures a total of about 7 million loans
valued at nearly $400 billion. These obligations are protected
by FHA's Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, which is sustained
entirely by borrower premiums.
FHA Loans For You
Coastal
is an approved HUD Mortgagee
