Real estate agents, home builders and lenders have for months been touting the government-backed FHA loan. And for good reason. It is helping keep the floundering housing market from sinking entirely.

Today, the Mortgage Bankers Association released a report that said the number of government-insured loans has tripled over the last year, In July, 29.1% were for government-insured loans (consisting of mostly FHA loans) compared to 8.4% in July 2007.

The MBA attributed the increase to higher FHA loan limits, a shift from conventional products and the lower down payment requirements. In the Central Valley, that means we're shifting back to the pre-boom days, when more than 50% of all the loans issued were FHA.