February 4, 2009 at 4:38 pm · Filed under Mortgage Rate Forecast, Uncategorized
No matter how low rates are, people always want more. Whether rates are at 6% and you want 5.75% or in today’s market where they are at historic lows, and some still hold out for it to go even lower. Because I hear so much about the phantom 4.5% rate that is coming from the government, I thought I would put together some numbers that actually show the cost of waiting for that program to show up (assuming that it will at all).
If you have a mortgage of $250,000 and a rate of 6.5%, your monthly payment would be $1580. With a rate like that you are no doubt looking to refinance into a much lower rate that is available today. At 5%, your new payment would be $1342 (a monthly savings of $238). For most people, that is a very noticeable savings.
So what about 4.5%? Your new payment would be $1266 which is a savings of $314 over your current loan, and $76 better than the option today. But how long do you have to wait to see that rate?
The latest trend data in the bond market leads me to believe that we are in fact trending upward on mortgage rates. This is based on a number of factors, but most noteably, the new reports available about the FED’s program to buy back mortgage backed securities. It turns out that the FED is actually buying back the higher coupon rate mortgage bonds, not the ones that today’s rates are based on. This means that the bonds being purchased by the FED are actually the ones backed by current mortgages in the 6% to 6.5% range (the very ones that consumers are rushing to refinance).
This will not drive down rates further, but instead will help serve as a ceiling to keep them from moving back into the 6% range for a while. Based on this information, waiting around for rates to go lower may actually push you out of the market all together.
For more on this, check out the history of mortgage rates over the last 6 months.
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October 9, 2008 at 10:10 am · Filed under Uncategorized
HUD increases lending limits nationwide for reverse mortgages.
If you have been shopping for a reverse mortgage only to find that you don’t have enough equity or that your balance on your existing mortgage is too high, there is relief on the way. As of a press release from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) dated October 3rd 2008, the lending limit has been increased nationally to $417,000. Previously, the limits were based on the county lending limits as established by FHA for the HECM (Home Equity Conversion Mortgage), FHA’s proprietary reverse mortgage program, and the most popular on the market.
With this important change in guidelines, the number of people who qualify for reverse mortgages has increased substantially. This is especially important as the number of seniors relying on social security for retirement continues to rise, while over 50% of seniors age 65 or older own their homes free and clear.
If you are not familiar with reverse mortgages, check out What You Should Know About a Reverse Mortgage.
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August 13, 2008 at 8:37 am · Filed under Credit Scores, The Mortgage Market, Uncategorized
In today’s lending environment, only the best credit risk borrowers will get a loan. Are you one of them?
Credit scoring has been used by banks and lending institutions for years. And for much of the last 10 years there were opportunities for any type of credit borrower…you just have worse terms for bad credit. It is really a simple concept – someone who has had credit issues or has not managed their finances well do not get the same deal that others get who have sacrificed to keep their credit in tact.
Whether you agree with this phylosophy or not, lenders do, and they call the shots if you want to borrow money. In this series I am going to address the most serious issues and how you can recognize and fix them to improve your credit rating, and ultimately save you money on interest and financing fees.
1) Debt Consolidation
Debt consolidation sounds like a good idea right? You take several debts that you have (assuming they have high rates) you find a new account that will allow you to roll all of them into one payment, usually at a lower rate or better terms, then you cancel the old cards and go about your happy financially responsible way. This would be a good idea if it ever worked that way….but it doesn’t.
What happens instead, to an overwhelming number of you, is that after “paying off” these other debts into a new consolidation loan, you now see a whole new realm of possibility at the mall or at the local car dealership. Seeing these credit cards that were maxed out for so long that you stopped carrying them suddenly becomes too tempting to pass up, and you are off to support more bad habits that got you into the previous mess to begin with.
I am about to tell you something that you will probably never hear from another mortgage banker, or anyone who makes a living from lending money. Are you ready? Wait for it………YOU CAN’T BORROW YOUR WAY OUT OF DEBT! I don’t know if I can be more clear than that.
When you consolidate debt, you are not paying it off, you are simply moving it from one account to another. i know that the term “eliminate debt” is thrown around in debt consolidation circles, but the only way to eliminate debt is to actually pay it off.
Now that I have beaten you up about it, let me tell you how to consolidate debt and make it work to your advantage.
Part of your credit score is based on your ratio of debt to available credit. It is considered to be a negative factor if you owe $5000 on an account that has a credit limit of $5000 for obvious reasons. If you are maxed out, you are seen as a risk that you can not manage debt well, and your score will be affected accordingly. Equally, it is considered to be a negative if you have $5000 available, and you always carry a $0 balance. Because a credit score is essentially a debt score, you are not seen favorably if you never carry debt. The idea behind this is that if you do go out and buy a big ticket item, you may have trouble adjusting to the new payment. (I don’t make the rules, I just report them).
It sounds like a losing proposition no matter what you do right? Wrong. The way around this is to not close the old accounts after you pay them off with a consolidation loan, but don’t go out shopping either. If you have 3 accounts with balances of $1000 each, the ideal scenario would be to get a new account with available credit of $7000, combine the $3000 leaving $4000 left on the new account, and $3000 on the accounts you just paid off. This would give you an available credit of $10,000 with outstanding balances of $3000. Since the credit bureaus like to see a ratio of around 30%, you have just killed two birds with one stone.
Lesson 2 – Payment History
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