Stockton Real Estate Blog

Homes in Stockton: Assumable FHA Mortgage Loans

Most sellers don’t realize that one of the advantages of FHA mortgages is that they are assumable. When a seller wants to sell his home, a credit qualified home buyer can assume their FHA loan which is an advantage when they sell because when you assume a mortgage, the terms and interest rate remain the same. This means an interest rate under 4% in today’s real estate market rather than a 6 or 7 percent interest rate in the future,

As an example, a $300,000 loan at 4% today carries with it a $1,432.25 principal and interest payment on a 30 year fixed mortgage. If offered for sale in five years, the purchaser could assume the $271,858.56 balance with the same $1,432.25 payment and remaining term of 25 years. The total payments over the 25 years would be $429,675.

Compare that to a new $272,000 loan at 6.5% for 25 years, which would carry a monthly payment of $1,836.56 (over $400 more a month than the assumption and more than $120,000 more over the 25 year term).

At 6.5% for 25 years, to wind up with the same payment as the assumed mortgage, our borrowers would only be getting $212,000…$60,000 LESS!

The point here is that, when rates go up, homes with assumable mortgages will have more value and will sell at higher prices because they are more affordable. As an additional bonus, the closing costs on assumable mortgages are significantly less. The homebuyers must be credit-worthy of course they must have good credit, qualifying income, and necessary assets to close, but they would have to be credit-worthy to get a new mortgage too!