The Federal Housing Administration is back on the block. Largely overlooked when mortgage lenders had a product for any borrower who could draw breath, the FHA has re-emerged as an important player in the real estate market.
Although the agency does not make loans, it does guarantee them. With foreclosures and delinquencies increasing, lenders and borrowers have turned to an old backstop.
FHA's importance has also been magnified by decisions by Washington Mutual and other banks to no longer wholesale loans, which gives brokers fewer places to take their loans.
