Using information provided by lenders who finance FHA loans, Lending Arsenal’s multi-lender loan pricing search engine for mortgage professionals effectively uses information from top wholesale lenders to help you compare sales quotes with rates and rebates, all tailored to your borrower's loan scenario.

The FHA, short for Federal Housing Administration, provides mortgage insurance on loans made by FHA-approved lenders throughout the United States and its territories. FHA insures mortgages on single family, multifamily, manufactured homes and hospitals. It is the largest insurer of mortgages in the world; insuring over 34 million properties since its inception in 1934.

FHA mortgage insurance protects lenders against loss if the homeowner defaults on their mortgage loan. The lenders bear less risk because FHA will pay the lender if a homeowner defaults on their loan. Loans must meet certain requirements established by FHA to qualify for insurance.

Unlike conventional loans, FHA-insured loans require small down payments. There is less flexibility in an FHA loan than conventional loans in calculating household income and payment ratios. The cost of the mortgage insurance is passed along to the homeowner and typically is included in the monthly payment. In most cases, the insurance cost will drop off after five years or when the remaining balance on the loan is 78 percent of the value of the property-whichever is longer.

FHA operates entirely from self-generated income and costs the taxpayers nothing. The proceeds from the mortgage insurance paid by the homeowners are captured in an account that is used to operate the program entirely. FHA provides a huge economic stimulation to the country in the form of home and community development, which trickles down to local communities in the form of jobs, building suppliers, tax bases, schools, and other forms of revenue.

Please note that the above information is taken directly from Federal Housing Administration website. For more details, please visit the official FHA site.