On Oct. 26, the Federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Administration announced it will be easing rules on condominium financing, a move that could boost mortgage lending to lower-income and first-time homebuyers. Under the new guidelines, the owner-occupancy requirement on condominiums will be lowered from 50 to 35 percent if the following three conditions are met: the project has replacement reserves of at least 20 percent of the budget; no more than 10 percent of the units are in arrears (more than 60 days past due), and the condo has three years of acceptable financial documents. The story and letter from HUD can be found here.