29 Jul 10 Mortgage Rates Drop 4 out last 5 Weeks
Mortgage rates have steadily been falling in 2010. Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds have fallen as shaky investors look for safer investments. Mortgage rates tend to track the yields on Treasurys. Low mortgage rates helped spark a little activity in the sluggish housing market. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, home loan applications for home buying inched up 2% last week from the previous week. Mortgage refinance activity has faltered slightly over the last week even though the refinance rates were also lower on the 15 and 30-year loans. The FHA Home Loan blog reported that FHA rates dropped again last week.
Tags: refinance rates
14 Jul 10 3rd Week of Record Low Mortgage Rates Drive Refinancing
For the third consecutive week mortgage interest rates fell to shatter records for the lowest rates in our era. Borrowers across the country seemed optimistic that conventional, FHA and VA home mortgage products were meeting their refinance needs. No one can say that the Federal Reserve, mortgage lenders and the government haven’t made a concerted effort in 2010 to aid the housing recovery nationwide.
Affordable Home Refinancing with Record Low Interest Rates
Most industry insiders believe that home purchase loan market will stay weak over the next few months as the housing market adjusts to the end of government incentives. According to Jerry Mlinar of Woodfield Planning, an Illinois mortgage lender said, “First time home buyers are motivated by low rates, but existing homeowners have a huge incentive to refinance because they stand to save significant money monthly immediately.” Mlinar confirmed that his company saw an increase in home refinance applications, but cautioned that guidelines for refinancing had tightened over the last few years. The lender said that the stated income and no equity mortgages are no longer available.
The average 30-year mortgage rate was little changed in the week ended July 9th, dipping to 4.49%. The mortgage rate rested just below the record low of 4.61% set in March 2009, according to the MBA’s records that date back to 1990. Fifteen-year mortgage rates dipped to 4.08% last week from the record low 4.06 % set the prior week. FHA and VA rates posted a rate reduction as well and more borrowers requested rate and term refinancing rather than cash out loans.
Tags: Illinois mortgage lender, Jerry Mlinar, no equity mortgages, VA home mortgage products, Woodfield Planning
07 Jul 10 FHA Mortgage Rates Dip to New Lows
MBA reported that FHA mortgage rates dipped to record lows last week. This spurred homeowners to go online to shop mortgage refinance rates. According to a spokesman from the FHA Home Loan Company, “Many borrowers are making a last ditch effort to refinance their adjustable rate loan into a more secure fixed rate mortgage that guarantees no interest rate changes for thirty years.”
FHA mortgage rates are available at 4.75% on fixed 30-year loan terms. There is no pre-payment penalty for early pay-off and if the FHA interest rates drop, that borrowers can access the FHA streamline for rate and term refinancing. FHA mortgage programs are more appealing and more affordable than ever. Read the original article online FHA Home Loans for Refinancing and Home Buying
Tags: FHA mortgage programs
08 Jun 10 FHA Changing Seller Concession Rules for FHA Loans
2010 FHA mortgage rates have reached record lows for purchase and refinance loans. For the first time home buyers who qualify for a FHA home loan, 2010 will be a year to remember. FHA lending guidelines have seen significant changes this year.
One of the key attractions of a FHA mortgage loan is going, going, but not quite gone. Sellers and buyers who move fast can still make the most of it. According to a source at HUD, the Federal Housing Administration plans to reduce maximum “seller concessions” from 6% of the home price to 3%. Seller concession rules allow buyers to look to the property seller to pay for a variety of services and taxes connected with the transaction loan origination and local transfer fees, appraisals, inspections, closing and escrow costs among others though not the down payment.
Compare FHA loan concessions with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac conventional mortgages, where seller concessions are restricted to 3%. For most home buyers, the FHA mortgage program provides additional flexibility that can be very useful when negotiating. ZipRealty broker, Abbie Higashi, said the new FHA guidelines made sense and she supports the move by FHA. She believes that real estate agents should “do the deals now” if more than 3% concessions would help the sale go through.
Tags: qualify for a FHA home loan
20 May 10 Home Purchase Loan Applications Drop to 13 Year Low
Yesterday, the Mortgage Bankers Association released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 14, 2010. The MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics, Michael Fratantoni said: “Home loan applications fell 27% last week and have declined almost 20% over the past month, despite relatively low mortgage rates. The data suggests that the tax credit pulled sales into April at the expense of the remainder of the spring buying season. In fact, this decline occurred even as interest rates on thirty-year fixed-rate mortgage loans dropped to 4.83% which is the lowest level in the six months….However, homeowners seeking mortgage refinancing did respond to these lower interest rates, with refinance applications up almost 15%, hitting their highest level in nine weeks.”
The Mortgage Banker’s application survey covers over 50% of all US mortgage loan applications taken by mortgage bankers, commercial banks, and thrifts. The data gives economists a look into consumer demand for mortgage loans. In a low mortgage rate environment, a trend of increasing home refinance loan applications implies consumers are shopping for lower mortgage payments which can result in increased disposable income and consumer spending. Home purchase applications have widely been considered a strong indication of home buying interest nationally. Breaking it down further — Conforming loan applications declined 9% and FHA home loan applications rose nearly 5%.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of home loan application volume, decreased 1.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 3.1% compared with the previous week. The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 0.8%. The Refinance Index increased 14.5 % from the previous week. The four week moving average is up 4.5 % for the Refinance Index. The refinance percentage of home loan activity rose to 68.1% of total loan applications from 57.7% the previous week.
The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 27.1% from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 27.0 % compared with the previous week and was 24.1% lower than the same week one year ago. The four week moving average is down 4.6 % for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index.
This is the lowest Home Purchase Index observed in the survey since May of 1997….The average contract interest rate for thirty-year fixed-rate home loans dropped to 4.83% from 4.96%, with points increasing to 1.08 from 0.91 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The effective rate declined from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for fifteen-year fixed-rate home loans decreased to 4.19% from 4.32%, with points increasing to 1.36 from 0.81 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. This is the lowest 15-year contract interest rate ever recorded in the survey. However, due to the increase in points, the effective rate was essentially unchanged from last week.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.81% from 6.86%, with points increasing to 0.37 from 0.35 (including points) for 80 % LTV loans. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity remained constant at 6.3% of total applications from the previous week.
03 May 10 Current Mortgage Rates Remain Mixed
According to Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association, mortgage interest rates were mixed for the weeks ending May 1, 2010. Freddie Mac reported all interest rates up although only slightly while MBA noted small decreases. According to Freddie Mac’s Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year mortgage with a fixed rate at 4.875%. FHA rates crept up to 5% on thirty-year mortgages with no pre-payment penalty.
Tags: FHA rates
18 Mar 10 FHA Market Share
FHA has been in the mortgage news a lot over the last year because of the low mortgage rates and the increasing number of FHA loan defaults. In a recent article posted on the FHA Loan Blog, the topic of FHA market-share was evaluated. FHA credit guidelines were announced that the will accept lower fico borrowers who are willing to come up with a larger down-payment when buying a home.
Many industry insiders believe that FHA will lose some of their market share because of new FHA requirements and tighter FHA guidelines. FHA mortgage rates remain ridiculously low, but most first time home buyers are having a difficult time qualifying for a FHA home loan. Time will tell if American consumers will continue to use FHA mortgage loans for refinancing. Rising mortgage insurance premiums and their higher credit score requirements certainly are not helping matters. Read the original article – Is FHA Losing Market Share for Home Loans?
08 Jan 10 Will the Fed Let the Mortgage Market Walk?
Many mortgage industry insiders believe the Federal Reserve will take their hands off the housing sector in 2010, when the central bank enables mortgage market to stand on its own two feet. The Fed is unlikely to step in again after its bad credit mortgage buying program devised at the height of the financial meltdown expires. That would take a renewed crisis, like a sudden and destabilizing hike in mortgage interest rates.
Besides conventional and FHA mortgage rates, there are other impediments to a fresh round of mortgage-backed debt purchases, including the Fed’s desire to keep inflation expectations under control. One of the reasons the Fed capped its bond-buying program, which included more than $1.4 trillion in mortgage-related securities and $300 billion in Treasury debt, was the perception that the central bank was “monetizing” federal deficits printing money to keep the government solvent. This latent fear, prevalent in financial markets and reflected in the elevated price of gold, has the potential to turn more than $1 trillion in dormant excess bank reserves into a runaway rise in prices, analysts say.
Barring a double-dip in housing, however, Fed officials are unlikely to meddle. Their reluctance to intervene anew has many roots. For one thing, it would signal a policy about-face that could adversely affect markets as investors reassess what they believed was an improving economic outlook. > Read the original article online.
