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NAHB’s efforts to improve the FHA multifamily insurance program began by helping to modify the model HUD used to set premiums, which were unreasonably high. In meetings with HUD, NAHB economists suggested solutions that have been incorporated into the model and that have produced more accurate results and lowered premiums.
That was followed in fall 2001 by a successful NAHB effort to persuade Congress to raise the FHA multifamily mortgage insurance program’s base loan limits by 25%. Those limits had not been raised since 1992. Last year, Congress agreed to index those limits to inflation, effective Jan. 1, 2004.
But there is still some work to be done. NAHB fears that the FHA — which has been doing a record amount of multifamily mortgage insurance business since these improvements were implemented — will not have sufficient commitment authority in FY 2004 to meet the demand for FHA-insured multifamily loans.
With a commitment authority level of $25 billion (only $2 billion more than provided in FY 2003), it is likely that FHA will have to shut down the program before the end of the fiscal year. The FHA multifamily programs were temporarily shut down twice in 2003 and again in early 2004 because HUD’s authority to issue commitments for new loans ran out.
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