The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that monitors government fiscal policy, once again has Florida ranked as the nation’s fifth best tax climate for business going into 2011. While some states move up and others down, Florida has remained very steady for six years in a row.

A key factor in Florida’s ranking is the lack of a state personal income tax. In addition, Florida also ranks 15th in corporate taxes, 30th in sales taxes, 3rd in unemployment compensation taxes and 28th in real estate taxes.

Not too bad when you consider everything else the State of Florida has to offer.

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Fair Isaac and Company (FICO) announced the release of a new credit scoring product called the FICO 8 Mortgage Score. It was specifically designed to help lenders make better credit decisions in predicting mortgage performance risk and is now available from all three major U.S. credit reporting agencies – Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

According to FICO, the FICO 8 Mortgage Score will analyze a borrower’s full credit history on file to deliver a better assessment of mortgage repayment risk and hopefully help cut down on the number of future foreclosures. FICO claims a 15% performance improvement over the standard credit scores currently available and says the new product includes additional score reason codes to help lenders understand and explain the scores to mortgage applicants.

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The Tax Foundation has created a state by state comparison of property taxes using 2009 U.S. Census data. The review utilized three criteria: median property tax paid, property tax as percentage of a home’s worth, and property tax as a percentage of median income. In all three comparisons, Florida ranked right in the middle. New Jersey came in at No. 1 and Louisiana finished at No. 50.

Based on the three criteria, the study found the following results:

• The median property tax paid on a home in Florida was $1,773.00, ranking it at No. 23. New Jersey homeowners paid $6,579.00; in Louisiana, the median homeowner paid only $243.00. The median property tax paid nationwide was $1,917.00.

Continue Reading State Real Estate Taxes: Florida in Middle of the Pack

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Congress has voted to keep the maximum size of loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA at their current levels through the end of 2011. For buyers in high cost areas, the maximum mortgage amount will remain at $730,000 for Fannie/Freddie loans and at $625,000 for FHA mortgages.

Anything above these limits set by Congress falls into a category known as “Jumbo” loans. During the financial crisis, mortgage lenders became far less willing to make these types of loans and thus Congress had to act. A typical level for Jumbo loans used to be around 18% annually. This year, they’ve made up roughly 5% of the mortgage market. However, this is likely to change as the premium gap for borrowers who receive jumbo loans has fallen to about a 0.8 percentage points. Prior to the crisis, the premium level was 0.25 percentage points.

Continue Reading Congress Extends Loan Limits

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