The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) published an update Wednesday to its Single Family Housing Policy (SF) Handbook, the first published update to the document since December of 2016.
“With today’s update, FHA is recommitting to the industry that it will continue to maintain and enhance the SF Handbook so that it becomes a single, comprehensive source of policy guidance for lenders and other stakeholders doing single family business with FHA,” the agency said in an FHA INFO notice announcing the update.
The content of the update contains technical changes to improve “consistency and clarity,” along with several policy updates. FHA recommends that all stakeholders in agency-sponsored transactions should, “review and become familiar with the changes outlined in SF Handbook Transmittal, available in FHA’s Online Housing Policy Library, as revisions have been made throughout Sections I through V of the SF Handbook.”
The changes to the Handbook have no effect on any previously announced effective dates, and are “effective immediately,” the agency said.
FHA also stated its intent to, “resume regular quarterly SF Handbook updates,” while adding that the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), Title I, and Condominium Approval sections of the SF Handbook are currently in the “development stage.”
The full transmittal outlining these changes shows that they run across the entirety of the Handbook’s over 1,000 pages, with the changes themselves spread out across five different sections: “Doing Business With FHA,” “Origination through Post-Closing/Endorsement,” “Servicing and Loss Mitigation,” “Claims and Disposition” and “Quality Control, Oversight and Compliance.”
The full Handbook transmittal outlining the changes is available online, as is the revised Handbook itself.
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