The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today announced that the 2014 maximum conforming loan limits for mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain at $417,000 for one-unit properties in most areas of the country.

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) establishes the maximum conforming loan limit that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are permitted to set for mortgage acquisitions. HERA also requires annual adjustments to these limits to reflect changes in the national average home price.

In determining the 2014 HERA loan limits in high-cost areas, FHFA continued its policy of not permitting declines relative to prior HERA limits. While HERA did not explicitly prohibit declines in high-cost area loan limits, that approach is consistent with the statutory procedure for responding to changes in prices on a national basis. Subject to this policy, the 2014 HERA limits reflect the higher of the limits directly calculated for 2014 and HERA loan limits determined for years 2009 through 2013.

The 2014 loan limits are higher than 2013 HERA limits in several counties. Those increases were, in some cases, a function of rising median home values.The conforming loan limit was increased in 18 counties. Seven counties saw large increases from $417,000 in 2013 to $625,000 in 2014, including Garfield, CO, and some counties in New York, Virginia and Idaho.

As a Property Manager and licensed Real Estate Broker with extensive experience in Fairfield and New Haven County, Connecticut, I'm always delighted to give property owners valuable insight into the Connecticut real estate market. This can help property owners gain a competitive edge over others in the area.

Working with a property manager typically means hiring someone to handle the various aspects of renting, including finding tenants, completing background checks, managing the finances, handling necessary repairs, and remodeling. However, the Bjorklund Properties management team can offer truly invaluable insight to property owners helping set the right rate ranges for the area, purchasing the right insurance policies and even obtaining better pricing for repairs and remodeling work.

Have you ever thought about adding solar to the mix of energies you use at home? Well, here in Connecticut, the city of Stamford has joined a new program called "Solarize Connecticut", which could just be the tactic for home owners here that actually works.

Today, Thursday, November 21st, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m, the program will launch at the Government Center where residents and interested participants can learn more about this program. If you want to know more, go to the City of Stamford's website. 

Solarizing your home is easy to do and clean to use by creating your own "green" power - and much cheaper than the electricity you buy from your utility company. When you install solar panels on your roof, you transform your home from a regular house into a "green" power plant that generates clean efficient energy for your home all year long. As you run your washing machine, power up your computer, brew a cup of coffee, the energy comes straight from the sun -- not from burning fossil fuels. 

Utilizing solar panels can reduce your electric bills significantly. Every single watt-hour of electricity your panels produces is one less watt-hour you have to buy from your utility company. Imagine that 60% of your power is produced by your solar panels, your electric bill will be 60% lower because only 40% of your electricity has to come from the utility company.

Electricity prices over the ten years have been very unpredictable, making it difficult for anyone to plan for that part of their household budget. Once your solar panels are installed, you no longer have to worry about rising electricity prices for the portion of your electricity that comes from solar. As prices increase, you receive a bigger and bigger benefit from your switch to home solar power.

Several solar power companies will actually charge you little or nothing to switch to solar power, so start researching and shopping! A clever start would be to look at details about electricity prices from the past decade in Connecticut. 

Solarizing your home also helps in reducing our reliance on overseas oil and gas and increase our energy independence as a country.  As our own domestic sources of oil and gas dwindles in the next coming years, it is becoming increasingly important to find alternative energy sources so that we can reduce our reliance on overseas fuel sources.