Editor’s note: This post covers a Freddie Mac underwriting update effective September 2, 2026. If you’re new to manufactured home financing generally, start with my Manufactured Home Financing Options in Washington State guide — this post covers one specific new eligibility path.

For years, one sentence could stop a manufactured home purchase or refinance in its tracks: “the home has been moved.” If a manufactured home had been installed at one location and later relocated to a different property, it was generally ineligible for conventional financing through Freddie Mac.

That has changed. Effective September‑2, 2026, Freddie Mac updated its Single‑Family Seller/Servicer Guide to permit financing on certain manufactured homes that have been moved from another site. Being relocated no longer automatically disqualifies the home — but it doesn’t mean every relocated home qualifies, either. Two specific requirements now apply.

Requirement 1: A structural integrity inspection

The home must be inspected to verify its structural integrity after the move. That inspection has to be performed by one of the following:

• A licensed professional engineer, or
• An appropriate local, state, or federal authority

This is separate from the standard HUD foundation certification that’s already required for manufactured home financing generally — think of it as an added layer specific to homes that have been physically relocated, confirming the move itself didn’t compromise the structure.

Requirement 2: The home can’t move into a more restrictive zone

This is the requirement that trips people up. The home cannot be located in a wind zone, roof load zone, or thermal zone that is more restrictive than the zone it was originally engineered for.

Manufactured homes are built to HUD standards that vary by these three factors, and a home engineered for one zone isn’t automatically rated to withstand the conditions of a more demanding one. In practical terms: a home built for a milder coastal wind zone can’t simply be moved to a site with higher wind zone requirements and be treated as compliant. This has to be verified — not assumed — as part of the eligibility review.

What this means if you’re buying or selling a relocated manufactured home in Washington

If you’re looking at a manufactured home that you know (or suspect) has been moved from its original site, this is good news — it opens a financing path that largely didn’t exist before. But it also means a few extra steps compared to a manufactured home that has never been relocated:

• Budget time and cost for the structural integrity inspection, in addition to the standard foundation certification.
• Ask early in the process whether the home’s original engineering zone is documented, and whether the current site falls within or outside that zone.
• All the standard manufactured home eligibility requirements still apply on top of this — real property classification, HUD certification labels, permanent foundation, and the rest.

Lender overlays on this new Freddie Mac policy may vary — some lenders may take time to implement or may require additional documentation beyond the Guide minimums. Confirm current requirements with your loan officer before assuming a specific relocated home will qualify.

Read: Manufactured Home Financing Options in Washington State

Have a relocated manufactured home you’re trying to finance?

These transactions have more moving pieces than a typical manufactured home purchase.

Want to learn more about buying or refinancing a manufactured home located anywhere in Washington state? Let’s Talk!

Rhonda Porter, NMLS #121324 | Licensed in Washington State. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a commitment to lend. Loan programs, guidelines, and rates are subject to change. Contact us to confirm current program availability and eligibility requirements for your specific situation.

Last reviewed: September 2026

If you own a condo in Washington and you’re thinking about selling, this one’s for you. Most sellers get their home ready with paint and staging — but very few think about whether their condo project itself is financeable and what the financing options are.

Why your condo’s financing eligibility matters when you sell

When you sell a single-family home, the buyer’s financing is mostly about them — their credit, income, and down payment. Condos are different. With a condo, the lender isn’t just underwriting the buyer. They’re underwriting the entire condo project: the HOA’s finances, the reserve fund, the insurance coverage, the owner-occupancy ratio, and whether there’s pending litigation.

If your condo project doesn’t meet a lender’s guidelines, your buyer’s financing can fall apart late in the transaction — sometimes just days before closing. I’ve seen sales collapse not because of the buyer, but because the condo association hadn’t responded to a questionnaire, or the reserve study showed a funding shortfall nobody had flagged.

Getting your condo “preapproved” before you list means finding out, in advance, what type of financing your unit is actually eligible for whether it’s conventional, FHA, or neither — so you’re not finding out the hard way, mid-escrow.

What does it mean to get a condo preapproved?

This isn’t about your personal credit — it’s about the project. Before I can lend on a condo, I have to determine whether the HOA and building meet conventional and/or FHA condo project requirements. That review looks at things like:

• Percentage of units that are owner-occupied vs. rented
• How much of the budget is allocated to reserves, and whether it’s adequately funded
• Whether any single entity owns too many units in the project
• Percentage of commercial or non-residential space in the building
• Delinquency rate on HOA dues
• Any pending or active litigation involving the HOA
• Insurance coverage — master policy, flood (if applicable), and fidelity bond
• Whether the project is on HUD’s approved condo list (a separate check from conventional warrantability)

A lender will typically require a condo questionnaire to be completed by the Homeowners Association (HOA) or property manager.

Warrantable vs. non-warrantable: what’s the difference?

Warrantable means your condo project meets conventional (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) guidelines, which opens the door to conventional financing — generally the widest buyer pool, the best rates, and the lowest down payment options.

Non‑warrantable means the project fails one or more of those guidelines such as one entity owning too many units, an underfunded reserve, active litigation, too much commercial space, and so on. It doesn’t mean your condo can’t be financed. It means conventional loans are off the table, which changes the type of financing that’s available and potentially reduces the amount of potential buyers.

Don’t forget FHA: it’s a separate approval, not the same thing as warrantable

Conventional warrantability and FHA approval are two different systems, evaluated by two different sets of guidelines. A project can be conventionally warrantable and not FHA-approved, FHA-approved and not conventionally warrantable, both, or neither. Knowing your project’s conventional status doesn’t tell you anything about its FHA status — each has to be checked separately.

HUD maintains its own list of approved condo projects. If your building isn’t already on that list, no buyer can use an FHA loan to purchase a unit in it — full stop, regardless of how strong that individual buyer’s financial profile is. The project either has to already be HUD-approved, or someone has to put it through HUD’s approval process before an FHA loan can close.

This matters for sellers because FHA buyers make up a real share of the market, particularly for lower-priced units and first-time buyers who need FHA’s lower down payment. If your project isn’t HUD-approved, you’re not just narrowing financing options — you’re closing the door entirely to an entire category of buyer, without ever knowing it happened.

As part of your condo preapproval review, I’ll check whether your project is already on HUD’s approved list. If it isn’t, we can talk through whether it’s worth pursuing HUD approval before you list — something your HOA or management company typically needs to be involved in, since it requires project-level documentation, not just information about your unit.

Why finding this out before you list protects your sale

Getting the project reviewed early gives you three real advantages:

• You can market to the right buyers. If your condo is warrantable and/or FHA-approved, it tells buyers their financing options are wide open. If the condo is non-warrantable, it’s helpful to let potential buyers know that financing is still available.
• You avoid last-minute surprises. If there’s an issue such as a lapsed insurance policy, an incomplete questionnaire, a reserve shortfall, or a lapsed HUD approval; you find may have time to fix it or price around it instead of dealing with it during a transaction.
• You keep more buyers in play. Some buyers can only qualify for conventional financing, and others depend on FHA’s lower down payment to buy at all. If your project isn’t eligible for one or both and nobody knew going in, you may have turned away buyers who never got the chance to make an offer with the right loan product.

If your condo isn’t warrantable or FHA-approved, what are your buyer’s options?

Neither finding is a dead end — it just changes the financing conversation. Depending on why the project doesn’t meet guidelines, your buyer may still have several paths:

• Non-QM condo loans. Portfolio and non-QM can finance non-warrantable condos, often with more flexible project requirements. Depending on the project, this type of financing may have a higher rate and/or require a larger down payment.
• Larger down payment. Some non-warrantable condo programs become available at higher down payment thresholds, since more buyer equity offsets project risk.
• Pursuing HUD approval. If FHA buyers are a meaningful part of your likely buyer pool and the project isn’t currently on HUD’s list, the HOA can pursue HUD approval. It takes lead time and HOA cooperation, so it’s worth starting well before you list, not after an FHA buyer’s offer falls through.
• Cash buyers. Project eligibility doesn’t affect a cash purchase at all — conventional and FHA requirements only come into play when a lender is involved. Cash buyers are typically able to negotiate a lower price for a home compared to an offer with financing. On a positive note, cash transactions can close faster than one that involves a mortgage.
• Waiting on a project fix. Sometimes the issue is temporary, such as a litigation matter that’s close to resolution, or a reserve study update already underway. If you’re not in a rush to sell, it may be worth waiting for the HOA to resolve the issue so the project becomes warrantable or FHA-eligible again.

The key is knowing which of these applies to your building before you’re under contract, so you and your agent can set expectations with buyers from the start — instead of losing a deal to a financing surprise.

Get your condo reviewed before you list

If you’re considering selling your Washington condo, let’s get the project reviewed first. I can request the questionnaire from your HOA, check both conventional warrantability and HUD/FHA approval status, and tell you exactly what type of financing your buyers will qualify for — before your listing photos are even scheduled.

Read: Financing a Condo in Washington

Read: Condo & HOA Red Flags in Washington

I’m back after taking last week off to go sailing around south Puget Sound. This week we’ve got a lot to cover — Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech, fresh inflation and housing data, jobs week on the economic calendar, and a look at long-term home price appreciation.

Recap From Last Week

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium was the big story for markets on Friday. He made clear that getting inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target remains his top priority, and that the underlying trend hasn’t improved enough yet to ease off.

That followed Wednesday’s inflation reports: headline PCE rose 0.2% in July, with annual inflation holding at 3.7%. Core PCE, which excludes food and energy, also rose 0.2%, with annual core inflation at 3.3%. The Dallas Fed’s Trimmed Mean measure — which filters out unusually large price swings — showed underlying inflation closer to target, at 2.3% over the past year.

On the housing side, new home sales declined 10.5% in July, though June’s figure was revised higher. The median new home price also dipped 2.3%, but that’s largely a mix shift toward homes in the $300,000–$399,999 range rather than a sign of falling values. In fact, Case-Shiller data showed home prices rose 0.4% from May to June. Even modest appreciation adds up over time — a $500,000 home appreciating at 3% a year gains roughly $15,000 in value in the first year alone.

Second-quarter GDP grew at an annualized 1.5%, matching the initial estimate. And over the weekend, the war with Iran heated up — along with Ukraine’s attack on Russia’s second-largest oil refinery — which isn’t helping oil prices, and could add pressure to mortgage rates in the weeks ahead.

Optimal Blue Rate Index

Optimal Blue reports the average 30-year fixed rate, as of last Friday, August 28th, at 6.688%. That’s essentially unchanged from where I reported two weeks ago, and very close to where rates stood this time last year.

Please remember: this Optimal Blue index reflects about 35% of mortgage transactions nationwide — it’s not a rate quote. You can’t lock in last week’s rate today, and your credit score, loan-to-value ratio, and other factors will affect what you actually qualify for. This is simply meant to show you the trend.

Economic Calendar: It’s Jobs Week

ADP is expected to show 47,000 jobs added, and the BLS Jobs Report is anticipated at 58,000, with unemployment holding steady at 4.1%. The next Fed meeting is two weeks away, and odds currently sit at 68% for a 25-basis-point rate increase.

• Monday: No economic reports
• Tuesday: JOLTS
• Wednesday: ADP Employment
• Thursday: Jobless Claims
• Friday: BLS Jobs Report

Next FOMC Meeting: September 15–16, 2026
CME FedWatch Odds: 68% probability of a 25 basis point increase

In the Spotlight: Long-Term Home Appreciation

Housing continues to stand out as a long-term investment. A new Fannie Mae/Pulsenomics survey of leading economists projects home prices will rise about 2.6% over the next year and roughly 15% over five years. For a $500,000 home, that’s around $13,000 in appreciation over the next 12 months, and about $75,000 over five years — highlighting housing’s continued wealth-building potential.

I have a tool that uses appreciation forecasts down to the zip-code level to show potential home values — the key word being potential, since it’s just a forecast. It also factors in your return on investment, including your down payment and closing costs. If you’d like to see an appreciation forecast with a potential rate of return for your neighborhood, just let me know.

Let’s Talk About Your Scenario

If you have questions about your specific situation — whether you’re buying, refinancing, considering a retirement mortgage, or just exploring your options — I’d love to hear from you.  I’m always happy to help.

Gig Harbor was established as a fishing town by Croatian and Scandinavian immigrants. The harbor is lined with historic netsheds used for storing large fishing nets, many of which still stand today as restaurants, shops, and gathering spaces that keep the working waterfront character alive.

This visit we grabbed a spot on the public dock and enjoyed the weekend festivities. A few highlights:

• The Tides Tavern is a must-stop; right on the water with great views and reliable food. The Tides Tavern has a dock available for boaters while dining at the Tides.
• NetShed No. 9 is located in one of the historic netsheds, featuring fantastic food and dogs are welcomed on the deck.
• 7 Seas Brewing has great deck overlooking the harbor, beer and wine available, and a food truck in the parking lot for a casual bite
• The Midway is a favorite for breakfast and coffee before exploring the waterfront
• Devoted Kiss Cafe — we couldn’t get in this visit (the line stretched outside the door). This is on our list of places to check out next time.

There are often concerts and events at Skansie Brothers Park and Netshed. This past weekend celebrated “Fishermen Feed the World” with seafood, live music, and plenty of activities for kids.

A highlight of the visit was touring the Gig Harbor Boat Shop — still active, still building wooden boats, and historically significant as the place where the first Thunderbird sailboat was built. The Harbor History Museum holds Thunderbird #1 alongside the restored 65-foot 1925 wooden purse-seiner Shenandoah, once used by the Skansie family for fishing. If you have any interest in maritime history or wooden boats, don’t skip this.

Gig Harbor is an active community with genuine pride in its history. The waterfront is easy to walk and the restaurants, history, and harbor views make it one of the more rewarding day trips on the Puget Sound.

Gig Harbor ranks as the best places to retire in Washington State on my personal list (although why wait for retirement to move here!).

My Gig Harbor Mortgage Guide covers what buyers need to know about financing in this market.

If you’re thinking about buying a home in Gig Harbor or anywhere in Washington state, let’s talk! 

What are some of your Gig Harbor favorites? 

See more photos from our Gig Harbor visit via my Instagram account @MortgagePorter.

Looking for something to do this weekend? Check out my other “Sunday Drives”.

This Week’s Recap

July brought some encouraging inflation news. Consumer prices rose just 0.1% for the month, with annual inflation slowing to 3.4%. Core inflation — which strips out food and energy — dropped to 2.5% year over year, its lowest rate in more than five years. That’s a welcome sign for the Fed as it weighs its next move, especially with July’s jobs report showing job losses for the first time in months.

On housing, existing home sales declined for a second month in a row, though prices continue to show seasonal strength — Cotality’s latest data has prices up 0.3% for the month and 1.2% year over year, a reminder that home values keep trending upward even in a slower sales environment.

Closer to home, our local market is telling a similar story. The Northwest MLS reports King County’s median sales price at $879,500 in July — up just half a percent from a year ago, essentially flat. What’s really shifted is inventory: active listings across our region are up nearly 20% year over year, giving buyers noticeably more room to shop and negotiate than they’ve had in a while.

And in the broader economy: retail sales fell 0.6% in July, below expectations, while unemployment claims held relatively low at 209,000.

Mortgage Rates This Week

Optimal Blue’s index puts the average 30-year fixed rate at 6.647% as of last Friday, August 14th — a touch higher than what I shared with you last week, and very close to where rates stood this time last year. Rates dipped just below 6% right before the conflict in Iran began, and have been elevated since.

A quick reminder: the Optimal Blue index reflects about 35% of mortgage transactions nationwide — it’s not a rate quote. You can’t lock in last week’s rate today, and your credit score, loan-to-value, and other factors will all affect what you personally qualify for. This is simply meant to give you a sense of where rates are trending.

I’m happy to provide you with current mortgage rates based on your personal financial scenario for your home purchase or refinance in Washington state.

Economic Calendar

It’s a pretty light week on the calendar. The big item is Wednesday’s release of the FOMC minutes. Beyond that, keep an eye on oil prices and the war in Iran — that’s likely to be what drives rate movement this week.

Mortgage-Backed Securities Snapshot

As of this recording (just after 10am), mortgage-backed securities are slightly down — pretty flat overall. The Dow was down about 215 points.

Reverse Mortgage Myth of the Week

Today I want to bust a common myth about reverse mortgages: the belief that the bank takes over or owns your home. That’s simply not true. There are strict loan-to-value requirements upfront that factor in the homeowner’s age and the home’s value.

A HECM loan is a non-recourse mortgage, meaning neither you nor your heirs will ever owe more than the home is worth — even if the home’s value drops. And once you no longer occupy the home, you or your heirs have options: refinance out of the reverse mortgage or sell the home and keep the net proceeds.

For seniors sitting on significant home equity, whether you’re facing a financial challenge in retirement or just want to supplement your cash flow, a reverse mortgage is worth considering. And if it’s not the right fit, we have several other mortgage options to help seniors as well.

Let’s Talk About Your Mortgage

If you have questions about your specific scenario — whether you’re buying, refinancing, or exploring a reverse mortgage — I’d love to hear from you.

Rhonda Porter is a licensed Mortgage Advisor (NMLS #121324) serving King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties in Washington State.