October 02, 2005
Florida Association of Realtors recently reported that Confidence plummeted in Florida and the Nation

They state on their web site that consumer confidence has slipped to a 12 year low and the nation has slipped to a 2 year low. Most of the reasoning is related to the hurricanes and the rising gas prices but they do also state that these are short term shocks to the economy. Rebuilding of damaged areas will create jobs and the flow of insurance monies into these areas should increase the consumer's confidence by early 2006

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November 30, 2004

Fannie Mae Announces 2005 Conforming Loan Limit of $359,650

WASHINGTON, DC -- Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE), the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages, today announced that it will apply new conforming loan limits, as determined by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) based on federal data on mean (average) home prices, to increase its single-family mortgage loan limit to $359,650 for 2005.

As a result of the new loan limit, Fannie Mae estimates that in 2005, as many as an additional 271,524 homeowners would be eligible for a conforming loan.

Conforming loan limits may adjust annually. The conforming loan limits adjustments are based on the October-to-October changes in the mean (average) home price, as published by the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB). The FHFB figures come from its monthly survey of lenders. Both new and existing homes are included in the survey.

Limits for multi-unit loans for 2005 will be as follows: two-family loans $460,400; three-family loans $556,500; and four-family loans to $691,600. The 2005 loan limit for second mortgages will be $179,825.

The maximum amounts for one-to-four-family mortgages and second mortgages in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are 50 percent higher than the limits for the rest of the country.

Most loans Fannie Mae purchases are well below the conforming limit. Our average loan size for single-family properties in 2004 is about $160,000.

Fannie Mae is a New York Stock Exchange company and the largest non-bank financial services company in the world. It operates pursuant to a federal charter and is the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages. Fannie Mae is working to shrink the nation's "homeownership gaps" through a $2 trillion "American Dream Commitment" to increase homeownership rates and serve 18 million targeted American families by the end of the decade. Since 1968, Fannie Mae has provided over $4 trillion of mortgage financing for 47 million families.