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Choosing the Best Refinance Loan
Posted by: | CommentsFinding the best refinance loan online takes patience and perserverance, but with rates this low it’s clearly worth your time to shop refinance lenders online. Mortgage interest rates are dropping to historic levels, but how low will they go and is now the best time to refinance? The chances of interest rates getting much lower are slim and since nobody know when the Fed is going to start hiking rates again, refinancing now is a safe bet.
According to Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is available 4.375% and the 15-year fixed rate mortgage can be locked in at 3.75%. Whether you are considering a refinance long term fixed rate or a hybrid ARM, few people would disagree that it’s a great time to lock in a record low mortgage rate. With interest rates hovering at 4%, you can realize significant monthly savings simply by refinancing.
How Could Rates Get Any Better?
Yet mortgage lenders are reporting that they’re not seeing record activity they had anticipated with record low mortgage refinance rates. Many homeowners have been stressed because their ARM home loan interest rate is about to reset. Borrowers who qualify may be able to save hundreds of dollars a month by refinancing.
Best Rate and Term Refinancing Options
- FHA Streamline Refinance
- VA Streamline Refinance
- Conventional Refinancing
- Home Equity Loan Refinance
Loan refinancing costs range from $3,000 to $5,000. We recommend refinancing with a FHA or VA loan if you already have a government mortgage, because the streamline loan is the best refinance option today. The streamline refinance enables borrowers to qualify even if they are over 100% loan to value because there is no appraisal required. The streamline refinance is great for borrowers that are having problems qualifying for a refinance because their debt to income ratio is too high, because there is no income verification.
When to Lock Your Rate for Mortgage Refinancing
Posted by: | CommentsMortgage refinance rates dropped to new low again this week at 4.42% on a thirty-year mortgage. If you have been considering a home refinance loan, now is likely the time to get approved by a lender and lock into 30-year loan. Yes, refinance rates could go lower in the next few weeks, but they also could rise. But the consensus among economists is that our slow-poke economy will eventually pick up steam and interest rates will then go higher.
When to Lock Your Mortgage Rate
If you can get approved for a refinance loan, consider yourself blessed. In St. Louis, 18 % of homes were worth less than the mortgage on them as of June, according to the real estate tracking firm Zillow.com. Many other homeowners no longer have the 20% equity needed to avoid expensive private mortgage insurance.
Many homeowners have been stuck with underwater mortgage loans as many still are unable to qualify for home refinancing. However under the Home Affordable Refinance Program there are new opportunities for borrowers to refinance if they have they have good credit and they have been making the mortgage payment on time. The only catch is that their loan must be backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The government-operated behemoths allow refinancing of loans up to 125 % of the home’s value. If your current loan doesn’t require mortgage insurance, you won’t need it for the refinance. You can find out if Fannie or Freddie back your loan at http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/. Mortgage refinance lenders have tightened their guidelines since they helped knock out the economy in 2008. The mortgage refinance rates you see advertised are for the most credit worthy customers.
If your credit score is under 720, you probably won’t get the best rates, says John Frank, president of Paramount Mortgage in Creve Coeur. If it’s under 640, you’ll find it hard to get a mortgage. The median credit score in the U.S. is 711, according to the scoring company FICO. Mortgage refinance lenders are looking for people such as Kim Johnson. She walked into Paramount Mortgage last month with a high credit score and a down payment of more than 50% to put on a $190,000 home she was buying in Manchester. From signing the contract to closing took just two weeks, and she landed a 4.5% home loan. “I was thrilled. It obviously helped me buy a little more house,” she said.
Home Mortgage Refinancing Activity Rises 17%
Posted by: | CommentsIn their weekly mortgage rate report, the Mortgage Bankers Association indicated that home mortgage refinancing activity had risen17% from the previous week. This is great news if you were considering refinancing your mortgage.
The report also mentioned that home purchase loan applications made up less than 20% of the weekly volume of loan applications. This is another sign that the housing sector remains sluggish. Home buyers are clearly not motivated enough to finance a new home even as mortgage rates have fallen to historic levels. Last week the average 30-year home loans with fixed rates increased to 4.6% from 4.57%, according to the MBA. Clearly, low rates alone aren’t going to bring home buyers back to the market. As we’ve said before the employment numbers need to get better.
That’s because investors have begun paying more for mortgage bonds than in the past, enabling lenders to cover some home refinance costs that borrowers would traditionally bear. Some economists are holding on to their hopes that mortgage refinancing is the second best way to stimulate the economy behind new jobs. However some insiders are not confident that another mortgage refinancing wave will have much of an impact on our nation’s recovery. While it can put money into borrowers’ pockets, some homeowners are using low refinance rates to consolidate debt, by refinancing into home loans with shorter terms and knocking off several years of mortgage payments.
No Cost Mortgage Refinancing
Posted by: | CommentsIn most cases, homeowners save money when refinancing their home. However, with the cost of refinancing rising it is important to try and negotiate your closing costs prior to making the commitment to refinance. Mortgage refinancing costs can be a deterrent for borrowers who are looking for the best home refinance loan. But with refinance rates at a 50-year low there are things you can do to reduce or even absorb lending costs.
Negotiate Closing Costs When Refinancing
Vince Ingui is a mortgage consultant who works with Louviers Mortgage told some borrowers recently that the key is to find out at how loan closing costs are categorized.
No closing costs out of pocket means you don’t have to pay for closing costs at closing because the refinance loan enables you to finance the closing costs into the mortgage. So in this case, the borrower would still have refinance costs but they do not have the pull money out to pay for it.
No cost mortgage refinancing is when a lender actually pays the closing costs. The lender pays for 3rd-party lender fees like, title, appraisal, escorw and notary. He warns that often times the mortgage refinance rate is higher, when the company offers a no cost refinance. Ingui suggests that either they are going to make it in the closing costs or with your rate and more times than not you will pay a higher interest rate.” Ingui warned homeowners to watch out for additional fees when they are comparing quotes for home refinancing. Beginning in January, those fees are required to be included in the so-called “good faith estimate.” The time has never been better for mortgage refinancing if you meet the criteria to qualify.
Hope for Home Refinancing Returning
Posted by: | CommentsLots of homeowners are frustrated because that they can’t qualify for mortgage refinancing even though home loan rates are at all-time lows. Rachel Beck reported in a Reuters article that these homeowners are not by themselves as many people on Wall Street are rooting for lenders to loosen the refinance guidelines because they believe that refinance boom would be an effective way to boost the economy. Their train of thought is that if more homeowners can take advantage of home refinancing, that they will have more disposable income to help spend us out of this recession.
Those economists and analysts calling for a mass mortgage reset say it could be engineered by the government, which controls the giant mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Have them loosen underwriting criteria and offer discounted lender fees in an effort to help the distressed homeowners qualify for a fixed refinance loan that could boost their quality of life with an immediate increased cash flow..
The only way, the trend of mortgage refinancing in high volumes nationally would indicate that banks and lenders were reverting to looser refinance guidelines, one of the things that got us into this mess. It could also boost mortgage refinance rates for new borrowers and force U.S. taxpayers to shoulder more risk, since they technically own Fannie and Freddie. Dean Baker, co-director of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington said, “At some point, we have to ask ourselves how much more can we ask taxpayers to do to support people staying in their homes.”
Wall Street has been buzzing with talk of additional mortgage relief. HUD announced a new FHA short-refinance program that will offer mortgage aid to borrowers who saw their property value tank in the last few years. Apparently, GMAC has been offering these FHA short refi’s to distressed homeowners residing in California. Millions of borrowers haven’t been able to qualify for fixed rate mortgage refinancing. Many of these homeowners have been rejected multiple times by multiple lending companies. Unfortunately, missing out on these record low mortgage refinance rates, is like leaving thousands of dollars on the table.
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