New Federal Housing Administration guidelines will lower the amount of interest paid by consumers on its loans. The FHA insures mortgages with down payments as low as 3.5 percent and had raised the cost of its premiums to 1.35 percent in 2013. Instead, borrowers will face premiums half a percent lower at 0.85 percent. The change may not put much more cash in the pockets of borrowers – it will save them about $25 on a 30-year, $100,000 mortgage – and will not affect loan origination. The change could bring in some new borrowers, but other low-cost options are available and the savings are so minimal that they probably won’t be enough to sway a potential homebuyer.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act goes into effect this year. The rule means that qualified mortgages administered by the FHA loans issued after Jan. 21 are required to have substantially equal payments. They won’t be eligible for post-payment interest charges or balloon payments. According to HUD, these charges cost homebuyers an estimated $449 million in 2012.

The FHA’s property-flipping rule is due to go back into effect and will prevent HUD from insuring loans on homes that had been resold in the last 90 days. The law was intended to protect investors and lenders from losses and reduce higher foreclosure rates associated with illegal rehabbers. The rule, which also harmed legitimate rehabbers, was waived in 2010, but that waiver has now ended. Estate sales, sales by government agencies and homes that are located in areas that have been declared disaster areas are excluded from the rule.

An extension of the Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 that was signed into law in December is intended to provide some relief for homeowners who participated in short sales completed in 2014, according to the Internal Revenue Service. According to the rule, if a bank sells the property for less than the amount of the mortgage and the homeowner had received mortgage relief, the difference won’t be counted against them as phantom income.