A high permeability grain oriented electrical steel having a chemistry comprising, all in weight percent, 2.5% to 4.5% silicon, 0.02% to 0.08% carbon, 0.01 to 0.05% aluminum, 0.005% to 0.050% sulfur or selenium, 0.02 to 0.20% manganese, 0.05 to 0.20% tin, 0.05 to 1% copper, 0.5% to 2.0% chromium, up to 0.10% phosphorus and up to 0.20% antimony with the balance being essentially iron and residual elements. The steel contains chromium and phosphorus in such amounts that a Cr:(P+0.25Sb) ratio is below 80:1 or, below 50:1, or below 30:1 which provides highly stable magnetic properties in the finished steel sheet. A hot processed band comprised of such steel is annealed and rapidly cooled after such annealing at a rate of at least 50° C. per second from 875-950° C. to a temperature below 400° C. prior to cold rolling to final thickness. Such steel forming a hot processed band having a thickness of from 1.5 to 4.0 mm and having a volume resistivity of at least 50 μΩ-cm, an austenite volume fraction (γ1150° C.) of at least 20%, and an isomorphic layer thickness of at least 2% of the total thickness on at least one surface of the hot processed band.