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Welcome to the FHA Handbook Portal

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Handbook portal contains the Single Family Housing handbooks in Information Mapping format as well as links to Mortgagee Letters and other resources on the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) website. The online 4155.1 and 4155.2 Handbooks incorporate and consolidate guidance from Handbooks 4155.1 REV-5, 4000.2 REV-3, 4000.4 REV-1, 4165.1 REV-2 and related Mortgagee Letters.


Handbook 4155.1 Chapter 4 has been updated to include minor edits.


Note: We anticipate updating Handbooks 4155.1 and 4155.2 with MLs 09-46A and 09-46B in the very near future.

The FHA Handbook Hierarchy

The Information Mapped Handbooks are organized as shown in the table below.

New Handbook Hierarchy Numbering Example

Handbook

4155.1

Chapter

4155.1 1

Section

4155.1 1.A

Topic

4155.1 1.A.1

Block

4155.1 1.A.1.a

Find Content via the Table of Contents and Advanced Search

Table of Contents and the Handbook Links

Click the Table of Contents link or the title of any of the Handbooks on the left to view the entire content of the Handbook. Click any entry to view related Topics.


Advanced Search

The Advanced Search option allows you to find a specific Block of content. You can display a list of Blocks in a handbook alphabetically or by handbook hierarchy. You can also input specific criteria to refine your search for specific content, such as


  • Handbook, which limits your search to a specific handbook
  • Keyword, which limits your search to Blocks with labels that contain the indicated keyword, or
  • Information Type, which limits your search to a specific type of information, such as a Procedure

Note: The Search feature matches words in Block title only at this time. It does not match words within the text of a Block.


Bookmarking Content for Future Reference

Once you find the content you are looking for, you can save it for future reference by selecting the Bookmark button (

). This action saves the Topic or Block in your Web browser's Favorites list.

The FHA Handbook Content Page

Navigating Between Content Pages

When you are on a Chapter or Section page, use the Topic list near the top of the page to select a specific Topic. Once you have selected a Topic from the list, only that Topic will be displayed on the screen.


To navigate through the Chapter/Section

  • use the View Next Topic and View Previous Topic links at the top of the page to scroll through all of the topics in the Chapter/Section, or
  • select the View Topic List link to redisplay the list of Topics and make another selection.

Navigate within a Handbook

The top of each content page contains a "bread crumb" trail to show you exactly where you are within the hierarchy of the Handbook. You can select any item in this bread crumb trail to go to that level in the Handbook. For additional navigational help, each Topic and Block contains a location ID on the right side of the screen that pinpoints your exact location within the Handbook hierarchy, such as 1.2.c (Chapter 1, Topic 2, Block c).


References to Other Content Pages and External Web Sites

Handbook content Blocks contain hyperlinked references to other locations within the Handbook and external Web sites. These hyperlinks are followed by a small window icon (

). Click on the hyperlink to open the relevant content in a new window. To return to the previous content, simply click the X button in the top right corner of the window.


Print a Chapter or the entire Handbook

The print option, located on the left menu bar allows you to print


  • an entire Handbook, or
  • a Chapter within a Handbook.

Print-ready documents contain navigational aids, such as clean page breaks, document identifiers at the top of each page, and page numbers at the bottom of each page.

The FHA Handbook Portal Archive

View the Archived Handbooks

The link on the left and top, provides a complete listing of all previous Handbook and portal versions.

Use the Quicklinks

The menu on the left provides one-click access to


  • information in the Handbooks, such as a particularly relevant procedure, or
  • external Web sites that contain pertinent information, such as CFRs or U.S.C.s.

These links may change as information becomes identified as important or timely.

Access Help

Portal Help

The Help button on the left menu explains the functionality available on this portal.


Content Help

For content specific help, the Get Help button located at the bottom of each Block allows you to send an e-mail to FHA requesting help with that specific content. This button will open a new message window in your e-mail program, with the Subject field automatically filled-in with the appropriate Block-ID and title.