SF Mortgage Spot

Over the past months, I have been telling clients not to worry too much about losing a government program that has greatly helped our San Francisco housing market,  namely the "temporary" Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac/FHA loan ceiling of $729,750.  Industry insiders expected the limit to be extended, and only one of our lenders (Suntrust) was warning us to submit loans over $625,500 by a certain date.  We thus felt pretty confident that the increased limits would be extended.

Without the increase, Fannie/Freddie/FHA loans here would have been capped at $625,500, which is still higher than the $417,000 that applies to most of the country, but not enough to help people looking in the $700k to $1M price ranges that are so common here.

Yesterday, we learned that legislation was approved by both houses of Congress to extend the "temporary" limits to December 31, 2010.

We are still waiting to hear whether the $8,000 tax credit will be extended.