Antioch, TN

As a native Nashvillian, I grew up in the south Nashville-Melrose area. I have lived in Inglewood and two different neighborhoods in Antioch. Living in Antioch in the 1990s, I remember when Hickory Hollow Mall was bustling and running at full capacity. JCPenney, Dillard's, and Castner Knott were all there. Circuit City and Toys R Us were just across the parking lot. Especially during Christmas time, you could not get down Hickory Hollow Parkway at a faster pace than a snail's crawl because of the shoppers and their traffic. The 1990s were the boom years. Then slowly Hickory Hollow Mall began to lose tenants and a lot of the surrounding merchants went out of business. Dillard's closed their location in the mall and JCPenney moved to Wilson county in Mount Juliet. Circuit City went out of business and Best Buy left the area too. In recent years, Hickory Hollow Mall has become almost a ghost town. There are currently more empty spaces than tenants.

The good news is that there may be a whole new purpose for Hickory Hollow Mall and the Antioch area of Hickory Hollow Parkway. The mayor of Nashville - Mayor Karl Dean proposed a new $18 million dollar plan for Hickory Hollow Mall this past week. The plans include a public health center, community center, a library, and a park. The old JCPenney building would become a 19,000 square foot library. The public park out front would consist of multiple acres. There are also plans underway to relocate the fairgrounds from near downtown to the the mall also, creating an expo center and space for the flea market in the old Dillard's building.

These plans will certainly bring the life and vitality back to Hickory Hollow Mall and inject some new life into Antioch.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is coming to Antioch TN. Ty Pennington and the crew will be helped by Hardaway Construction and LP Building Products (of LP Field fame - where the Tennessee Titans play). Lighthouse Christian School in Antioch is the site for the makeover. Those of us in the Nashville area remember in May when the floods pushed a portable at the school off it's foundation and it was shown floating down I-24 on the evening news. The preschool at Lighthouse Christian was also destroyed in the flooding.

For anyone who wants to help with a donation of materials, money, or time, you should go to the website at www.nashvillebuild.com for information on how to participate. The build is open to spectators beginning at 8 am tomorrow at 5100 Blue Hole Road, Antioch. All visitors should register in the Antioch Community Center parking lot which is just up the street from the school, also on Blue Hole Road. There are currently 1,500 volunteers already signed up to help per the Tennessean. It is planned that the preschool will be completed and unveiled on September 18th. Lighthouse Christian School still needs additional monetary donations and any money left over from the project will be donated to the school.

The episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition featuring this build in Antioch will be aired on ABC later this fall season. For your chance to be seen on TV and help a worthy organization, come out to Lighthouse Christian School and lend a hand.

The final rules are effective April 1, 2011, to provide lenders and originators time to develop new business models, implement necessary changes to their systems, and train personnel.

The final rules, which apply to closed-end loans secured by a consumer's dwelling, will:

• Prohibit payments to the loan originator that are based on the loan's interest rate or other terms. Compensation that is based on a fixed percentage of the loan amount is permitted.
• Prohibit a mortgage broker or loan officer from receiving payments directly from a consumer while also receiving compensation from the creditor or another person.
  
• Prohibit a mortgage broker or loan officer from "steering" a consumer to a lender offering less favorable terms in order to increase the broker's or loan officer's compensation.
• Provide a safe harbor to facilitate compliance with the anti-steering rule.
  

The final rule applies to loan originators, which are defined to include mortgage brokers, including mortgage broker companies that close loans in their own names in table-funded transactions, and employees of creditors that originate loans (e.g., loan officers). Thus, creditors are excluded from the definition of a loan originator when they do not use table funding, whether they are a depository institution or a non-depository mortgage company, but employees of such entities are loan originators.

The rule requires creditors and other persons who compensate loan originators to retain records for at least two years after a mortgage transaction is consummated.

Originator compensation can't vary based on terms of the loan like a higher ARM margin but loan level risk-based price adjusters are still in play. This prohibition does not apply to payments that consumers make directly to a loan originator (origination fee). However, if the loan originator receives payments directly from the consumer, the loan originator is prohibited from also receiving compensation from any other party in connection with that transaction.

***This last line almost makes it sound like if we collect "up front" origination we cannot also get "back end" compensation from the lender... It will be interesting to see how the lenders interpret this crap.

Get out your permanent markers, HUD seeks public comment on three main issues for FHA loans

You can make a difference - you have 30 days to comment against FHA's proposals

With a difficult economy and possibly some new FHA mortgage changes coming in the new future, this could be time to make your voice heard. HUD made this announce back in January 20th, 2010 - FHA announces policy changes to address risk and strengthen finances - I parlayed this announcement into layman's terms. - FHA loans and some possible mortgage changes.

So now, FHA just announced that there will be a 30 day period for comments on these issues described above. These proposals are designed to limit the risk in regards to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and at the same time, trying to promote sustainable homeownership for FHA borrowers.

The 3 possible changes to FHA Loans :

1. Changing the combination of credit scores and downpayments. You will need a credit score of 580 or above to still be eligible for the regular 3.5% downpayment. If below 580, you will be required to put 10% down. And FHA loans will not allow any loans with credit scores below 500.

My opinion : I am not concerned with this proposal. Most lenders require credit scores of 620 or higher on FHA loans. I wrote about it here. - FHA home loans have no minimum credit scores - So FHA, you can have this one.

2. The reduction of seller concessions from 6% to 3%. Many of us know that this could have a huge impact on many different housing markets.

My opinion : I truly think this could affect those buying homes from $150,000 and below. Especially those homes prices at $100,000 and below. That would mean on a $100,000 home, the buyer could only get $3,000 of help towards closing costs. - FHA, since I gave you #1, I want #2, and keep it at 6%. Update... keep this in mind - If a borrower has to come up with more money now, what does that do to their cash reserves in many cases. In troubled times, does this mean that they will default quicker now?

3. To tighten FHA underwriting standards for manually underwritten loans. FHA's purpose would be when using compensating factors while underwriting, lenders will be required to consider those factors which would be best predictive indicators of the performance of the loan.

My opinion : I guess I would have to wait for a better explanation letter in the mortgagee letter, if this is approved. You already are required top have compensating factors when manually underwriting a FHA loan, making sure that the loan will perform. I just think this is FHA's way of saying that they want underwriters to be more critical when approving a loan and to have more solid compensating factors. Ex. Instead of making sure that your borrower had 2 months in reserves (money left over after closing to cover 2 mortgage payments), that they would like to see 6 months. Who really knows on this one. Could be more political chit chat.

Conclusion : As I mentioned above, I am not worried about numbers 1 and 3. But number 2 could have an impact on the housing market in many areas. On the positive side of things, HUD could have increased the down payment to 5%. This was talked about in congress several times, but shot down. Talk of FHA loans raising the down payment to 5%. - Here is the argument about why some want more money down. The FHA argument - I want more skin in the game.

Where and how to comment :

Regulations.gov - (main site) please to search for government proposals.I give the specific page below, where to comment.

Here is the link to the different proposals and FHA's reasoning's for such proposals. Federal Register for HUD changes and the reasons why. If you go to the middle of the first page, you will see how they explain the different ways to comment. They highly suggest doing it electronically, which I mention below.

CALL to ACTION : Send this to other agents and loan officers. Don't hesitate to reblog this, to get the message out.

Here is the actual page to go and make your comments - Comments for reduction of seller concessions and new loan to value with credit scores - Click submit a comment which is on the right side of this page, in blue.

Important Update as of 7/17/10 @ 1:05 pm - Please read and make your voice heard - If you are going to comment to FHA, please copy and paste this link into your comment : http://activerain.com/blogsview/1749213/issues-regarding-the-3-seller-help-proposal-by-fha-can-we-fight-fha-loans-with-solutions-yes- (this article is below)

Issues regarding the 3% seller help proposal by FHA - Can we fight FHA Loans with solutions?? - YES !!!

Antioch TN (37013) Market Report for June 2010

As of July 18, 2010

These statistics include all residential properties listed in the Nashville MLS (MTRMLS) including but not limited to the neighborhoods of Long Hunter Chase, Somerset, The Country, Hickory Woods, Forest View Park, and the Villages of Long Hunter.

692 Active Listings priced from $42,900 to $849,900

94 Pending Listings priced from $27,000 to $269,900

107 Sold Listings priced from $42,551 to $391,000

Asking price per square foot $79.68

Sold price per square foot $78.60

60 days on market average sales time

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Call Rhonda at (615) 751-6234 or Email me now