Flip away: FHA extends waiver through 2014

The Federal Housing Administration is extending its 90-day “anti-flipping” waiver through 2014 which could bode well for single-family investors, rehabbers, and buyers seeking low down payment financing.

The waiver, announced in the Federal Register, allows buyers to purchase homes that have already been sold in less than 90 days.

The purpose of the two-year extension to the waiver is to increase “the availability of affordable homes for first-time and other purchasers, helping stabilize real estate prizes as well as neighborhoods and communities where foreclosure activity has been high,” said Carol J. Galante, acting FHA commissioner about the extension.

In 2003, FHA issued an anti-flipping waiver to stop a high number of home flipping, which was being blamed on inflating home values. The FHA rule prevented FHA-backed loans from being used to purchase homes that had been owned by a seller for less than 90 days.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development decided to reconsider that 90-day limit when foreclosures started to cause blight in neighborhoods and put downward pressure on property values.