HUD/FHA in Sun City West – June 2019

HUD Building Washington, D.C. Carol M Highsmith Collection Library of Congress

It has been a year since WeMAR received a copy form Sun City West Recreation Centers of the amended policy, Fi17.

Sun City West Recreation Centers amended its policy to comply with FHA guidelines regarding Free Assumability. Lenders, REALTORS®, appraisers, escrow officers, and others were happy. Reading the language, it appeared to comply with FHA’s Free Assumability guidelines, and it was assumed HUD had approved the language.

But, over the past year I have received numerous calls all asking the same question: Can FHA product be written/offered/closed in Sun City West? Confusion in the marketplace is not a good thing.

WeMAR hosted representatives of HUD in April. One of the topics discussed was this question of FHA product acceptability in Sun City West. One of the comments made to us was that Sun City West Recreation Centers never submitted the amended language for HUD comment, and so no comment has been made.

While HUD will not “approve” a governing policy, it will comment on language as it pertains to acceptability under guidelines.

WeMAR has written a letter to Sun City West Recreation Centers requesting they submit the language for review to HUD so that we will all know if the language is aligned with FHA underwriting guidelines.

HUD’s default policy is to the responsibility of determining FHA product guideline compliance on the Direct Endorsement Lender. As you can imagine, without HUD comments regarding this language, many lenders are unwilling to take the risk.

Letter from WeMAR to HUD April 2019

Letter to WeMAR from HUD May 2019

WeMAR letter to Sun City West Recreation Centers June 2019