And thus the scam continues. Super low interest rates are the bait, with the a) Buyer scammed by the overpriced home or b) the owner scammed by the overpriced closing.

The only way to win in a losers game is to NOT PLAY!

This is very true. Banks are increasing their fees in an effort to drive additional revenue. Appraisal costs have increased as well with the implementation of HVCC. Overall things are becoming more costly for the consumer. Not exactly the way to stimulate the economy.

I thought that all of the additional government regulation with the new GFE, new HUD1 form, and HVCC were supposed to make things safer and cheaper for everyone :). I guess it didn't quite work out that way.

I think the main point of the good faith estimate regulation was to keep buyers from being shocked at the settlement table by how much higher their closing costs were compared with the estimate, Grover. :-)

The State's MD Mortgage Program (MMP) recently increased the base amount for its Downpayment and Settlement Expense Loan Program (DSELP) from $3,500 to $5,000 for borrowers who apply and are approved for an MMP loan. The MMP also lowered its interest rate to 4.25%. For more information, go to http://tinyurl.com/32hfmdz

Thanks, Rosa. I blogged about the change here: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/realestate/blog/2010/08/state_program_ups_its_downpayment_help.html

It's OK with me if they get more money for their honest work. I would personally pay them even more. However, in case of foreclosure down the road, all the closing costs monies (and provisions/commissions) should be paid back.

Attempting to cash out before the wave of ARMs and Alt-As reset???? Then nobody will buy a home.

With the first time home buyers, the buyer isn't supposed to pay the taxes, but when you buy a government owned property, the government doesn't pay taxes. Someone has to the pay the taxes, so it goes back to the buyer and their costs go up.

I tried the DSELP, that was a complete waste to do the counseling program. I don't have any credit issues but I was required to do the program anyway and every time I turned around there was some other hoop to jump through. They dragged everything out and by the time they went to put in my application which I was on the lady about for over a week, conviently the program ran out of money the day before she submitted my application. I have no credit issues, I don't need the counseling program but I had to have it to apply to the DSELP.
Those programs can take up to a year if you have credit issues, but if you don't have credit issues and have all your ducks in a row you can do the program in two weeks. Get the program done before you even put an offer on the house, chances are you'll still be working on the program when it comes time to settle.

check out the livebaltimore sit:
www.livebaltimore.com

the site has a bunch of down payment programs, grants and a list of all the approved counseling programs, however these are home buying counseling programs.

I went once to LiveBaltimore @ the Charles. The nice lady volunteering turned out to be a realtor.

My guess is that this is more a result of lenders overestimating the fees for fear of tripping tolerances than actual costs increasing. The best and most accurate analysis would be done on signed HUD-1 Settlement Statements, not GFEs.

From my understanding a lot of the volunteers at the actual place are local business owners who advertise on the website, easier just to use the website then go in if you dont want to be bothered.

Better to overestimate then underestimate and not have enough at the table.

I definitely feel like costs are going up. With all the new forms and disclosures...it is costlier to complete the transactions now. With the tolerances...it seems that loan officers, especially ones that work for mortgage brokers are aiming high to prevent having to redisclose. Unfortunately, there has been so little true guidance from HUD, the feds...that many, many industry people are still in the dark. It seems that each lender is interpreting things differently as well. Bring back the old HUD form as it was much simpler than the new one.