16-12: Rural Housing Updates to the Technical Handbook

04/03/2016

Effective with all conditional commitments issued by USDA on or after March 9, 2016, PennyMac has aligned with the updates to the Rural Housing Technical Handbook HB-1-3555.  Below are highlights of the changes.  PennyMac encourages all lenders to read the Technical Handbook for complete details on all updates.

  • All borrowers may now finance up to 2 discount points on a refinance transaction.
  • The number of tradelines required to validate the credit score is reduced from three to two.
  • Evidence of a road maintenance agreement is not required.
  • Specific guidance provided for credit and income requirements based upon the GUS accept or manual underwrite.
  • Additional guidance on when a GUS accept must be downgraded to a manual underwrite included.

Please contact your Sales Representative with any questions.