Can FHA help you buy your first home? and the Downside to Smart Homes, from your Local Huntington County Realtor, Andy Eckert

Can the FHA help us buy our first home

this year?

Maybe it can. 

The FHA has reduced its Mortgage Insurance (MI) rate, resulting in a monthly payment reduction of $80 on average, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

"Buying a home is about more than owning a roof and four walls. It's about investing in savings and building a family and planting roots in a community."

That was the message that President Obama relayed in his January 7 speech on housing and homeownership in Phoenix, AR. His speech announced significant improvements to mortgage loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration.

"We're going to start this week laying out some of the agenda for the next year. And here in Phoenix, I want to talk about helping more families afford their piece of the American dream, and that is owning their own home."

Obama announced that FHA Mortgage insurance premiums would be reduced from 1.35 to .85 percent on both purchase and refinance loans. The upfront mortgage insurance premium (UFMIP) will however, remain at 1.75 percent.

The White House estimates more than 800,000 homeowners stand to save on their monthly mortgage costs from the reduced MI premiums. They also predicted that 250,000 potential buyers will enter into homeownership over the next three years as a result of the changes.

CoreLogic estimates the change will benefit FHA borrowers with an average of $80 per month, or $900 per year, in savings.

The President's measures are designed to address homeownership numbers r adiating from the flagging first-time buyer market.

First-time buyer participation limped into 2015 accounting for a meager 33 percent of the overall homes sold, the lowest market share since 1987 and down from 50 percent in 2010.

Downside to smart homes

 Smart homes are now a reality wit Amazon Echo and Google home. Appliances, heat, air conditioning, power, lights, security cameras -- everything can link to your smartphone. Turn on your pool heat from 50 miles away. Turn up your AC at the same time.

Of course, there are still some downsides to smart homes that are worth considering.

According to Christopher Harper at maketecheasier.com, security issues are serious. Breaches are inevitable, and security strategies must keep changing to keep up with the hackers. Your  system quickly could become outdated.  Even if it is not outdated, a hacker could send the air conditioning system into Antarctic mode at any time. You take your chances.

Smart homes also add to big data. You are letting big companies that already know a lot about you know more about you.  Afraid of big business? Afraid of big government? 

Finally, smart homes still cost a lot of money to do things like turn up the heat and turn on a light. Is it worth it now?  

Land cruisers in the outback

You think your cell phone has blackout spots. Imagine the Australian outback.  We are talking 2 million square miles of blazing heat, unpleasant snakes, and no cell service.

According to gizmag.com, what the Outback does have is Toyota LandCruisers.  Toyota has joined with other corporations and universities to set up a LandCruiser Emergency Network.

Using a mix of technology, the plan is to supply LandCruisers in the area with plug-and-play wifi devices. Every Cruiser will be a little wifi hotspot with a 15-mile range. People will connect their phones to a nearby LandCruiser that will forward the message along a chain of other LandCruisers until the message gets to a base station.  Consider how important this would be if the message were FIRE.