One result of the recent real estate troubles has been a heightened scrutiny of condominium loans. A result of this scrutiny is FHA revising, and re-revising, and putting on hold the rules that apply to approval of mortgages for condominium developments. Under the proposed rules, all FHA approvals for condo projects will expire every two years. Another aspect is some percentage limitation of FHA loans within the development, although the actual percentage doesn't seem to be fixed as yet. Also, the new rules will contain some minimum owner-occupancy requirement, which will be good news to many in projects that have started down the path of investor-controlled developments.
For a review of the initial rule, and then the subsequent rule, see Mortgagee Letter 2009-46A and Mortgagee Letter 2009-46B.
Matthew L. Winton, Oklahoma community association lawyer.