Mortgage Rates & Trends: Mortgage Blog

View the lowest rates we have to offer.
Read our RSS Feed Policy

  1. Tough Mortgage Lending Criteria Hurting Home Sales

    By on March 25, 2011

    mortgage guidelines, home loan requirementsGetting a mortgage is becoming more difficult for many potential home buyers. That’s one of the reasons why investors are starting to dominate purchases of short sales and bank-owned properties, concludes a survey of real estate agents.

    Investors, typically using cash to buy homes, accounted for 23.5 percent of home purchases in February, an increase from 19.9% percent in just two months, reports the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Cash purchases of homes set a record, reaching 33.7 percent of purchases in February.

    “We are seeing investors come back into the market. One investor told me that one house he wanted came on Wednesday p.m. and had 9 offers by Thursday a.m.,” stated New Jersey real agent participating in survey.

    Mortgage application requirements may get even tougher later this year and next year as the government withdraws its support for the housing market and tougher regulations implements new regulations. For instance, the conforming loan limit for jumbo mortgages in high-cost is scheduled to retreat from $729,750 to $625,000 on Sept. 30 and new regulations will require lenders to keep a stake in riskier, or non-qualified, mortgages. Those changes will probably mean higher mortgage rates and tough qualification requirements for many borrowers. Continue Reading…

    Category: Purchase

  2. How to Get a Low Interest Rate Mortgage Loan?

    By on February 11, 2011

    How to Get a Low Interest Rate Mortgage Loan?Mortgage rates have steadily climbed up for the past four weeks. With rates on the rise, mortgage applications have declined, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s  Weekly Survey. Also, since the housing market crisis started, many mortgage lenders have tightened their loan requirement criteria making it more difficult for potential borrowers to qualify for home loans.

    If you are a borrower looking to get a low interest rate mortgage loan in today’s tight market, it is important to prepare yourself and have the best possible profile to make sure you get one of the best mortgage rates available.

    The first step towards buying a house is to know what you are looking for in terms of the kind of house you want to buy, its location, and above all whether you are ready to handle the commitment of being a homeowner. Purchasing a house is one of the biggest financial decisions for many of us as well as a big commitment. Therefore, it requires a lot of planning, shopping for rates and comparing them to make sure you get one of the best rates available.

    Continue Reading…

    Category: Mortgage Rates

  3. Proprietary Mortgage Modifications Outpacing HAMP

    By on October 28, 2010

    Banks are doing far more mortgage modifications through their own proprietary loan modification programs than the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

    For instance, Bank of America said it modified over 12,700 mortgages through its own programs last month, compared to 3,700 mortgage modifications done through HAMP.

    Bank of America completed over 600,000 modifications through its own programs compared to 79,859 HARP modifications through August since the program started in early 2009. How to avoid defaulting.mortgage modification, mortgage modifications, loan modification, loan modifications, avoid foreclosure, HAMP

    Although HAMP has led to about 496,000 permanent mortgage modifications, it’s been criticized for falling far short of its goal of helping three or four million homeowners. Plus, many homeowners with modified mortgages end up defaulting anyway. Senator Ted Kaufman, chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committee, said almost half will end up redefaulting.

    Mortgage servicers completed 27,840 permanent HAMP modifications in September, a 16.5 percent decrease from August.

    On the other hand, almost 3.7 million home loans have gone through proprietary modifications since 2007 when the housing crisis began, including 150,000 in August, according to Hope Now, private sector alliance. About 91 percent of the modifications in August involved reductions in monthly principal and interest.

    Many homeowners who are eligible for HAMP may qualify for a Bank of America program, said Rebecca Mairone, default servicing executive of Bank of America Home Loans.

    Fewer borrowers are being helped by HAMP because they must now submit their full documentation before modifying the loan, she said. Previously, the bank allowed borrowers to state their before offering trail modifications, then followed up with full documentation later.

    The problem with loan mods

    “Unfortunately, with the slow economic recovery and continued high rates of unemployment and underemployment,” Mairone said, “some customers are having difficulty sustaining even reduced payments, and we are and will be working with many of them toward a smooth and dignified transition to alternative housing arrangements in the coming months.”

    If borrowers don’t qualify for any modification program, the bank will consider a short sale or a deed in lieu of foreclosure in which the bank offers cash in exchange for the deed.

    Category: Loan Modification

  4. New Fees For FHA Loans Decrease Upfront Costs

    By on October 4, 2010
    FHA loans, FHA refinance, first-time home buyer, low down payment mortgage

    HUD's headquarters towers over homes in Washington, D.C.

    New changes to mortgage insurance premium fees for FHA loans make it easier for home buyers to purchase a home. The FHA is lowering its upfront insurance premium from 2.25 to 1 percent of the loan amount.

    On the other hand,  the FHA, which is part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is increasing its annual insurance premium from 0.55 percent of the loan amount to 0.9 percent. The ongoing MIP will be 0.85 percent for mortgages that are 95 percent or less than the property value.

    That means home buyers will face smaller upfront costs. That’s good news for cash-strapped home buyers, especially first-time home buyers. The trade off is higher long-term ongoing costs because of the higher annual MIP.

    The new fees will also help current homeowners seeking an FHA mortgage refinance – at least in the short term. The new fees cover the FHA streamline mortgage, a program that waives credit and income checks for homeowners who already have an FHA home loan and who want a new mortgage refinance.

    Mortgage insurance premiums for FHA loans with terms of 15 years or less remain unchanged at 0.25 percent for loans to value over 90 percent. Another piece good news for homeowners is that they should eventually rid themselves of the insurance payments after they build up equity in their homes. For instance, homeowners with terms of 15 years or less and a loan to value of 90 percent or less don’t pay an annual MIP.

    If you get an FHA loan, you pay the MIP monthly as part of your monthly mortgage payment.

    After subprime lending disappeared when the housing price bubble burst a few years ago, FHA-insured loans became the only low down payment mortgage program around. You can buy a home with as little as 3.5 percent down with an FHA loan. Other types low down payment mortgages, also known as high loan to value mortgages, have still not returned.

    As borrowers swarmed to FHA-loans, defaults on its loans jumped and many observers worried about lax underwriting and poor loan quality.

    The FHA says it wants to meet the needs of the housing market while at the same time increasing its Mutual Mortgage Insurance fund without disrupting the housing market. FHA doesn’t offer home mortgages itself, but insures home loans that made through private lenders it has approved.

    Private mortgage insurance companies hope the increase in the FHA MIP will give them an advantage and help them regain lost market share.

    Category: FHA, First Time Home Buyer, Purchase, Refinance

  5. Home Sellers Slash Real Estate Listing Prices in May

    By on June 14, 2010

    home-for-sale-sign

    According to data recently released by online real estate brokerage ZipRealty, more than 43 percent of people trying to sell their homes lowered their asking prices in May.

    This is likely an after-effect of the expiration of the first-time home buyer tax credit, as sellers realize they are now working with a much smaller pool of prospective home buyers. The tax credit expired back on April 30, and a flurry of buyers rushed to beat the deadline in order cash in on rebates of up to $8,000.

    Since then, mortgage applications have fallen off considerably.

    “Home sellers may be lowering their list price to help stimulate interest from home shoppers now that the first-time and repeat-home-buyer credits have expired,” said Leslie Tyler, vice president of marketing for ZipRealty, in a news release.

    The median asking prices of houses up for sale in May was $264,936, down almost $2,500 from the previous month. Since then, the vast majority of mortgage activity has revolved around current homeowners refinancing their existing mortgages with the near-historic low mortgage rates currently available.

    ZipRealty also reported last week that online searches for home are down considerably, with web traffic on real estate websites down almost 20 percent from this time in 2009.

    According to Ziprealty CEO Pat Lashinsky, the housing market does not appear to have bottomed out yet either with respect to falling list prices. In an interview last week with the PBS Nightly Business Report, Lashinsky suggested, “I don’t think that we can say that housing has hit its bottom right now. I think that we’re going to see that the data right now that we’re seeing coming out of May and into June shows that I think that we’re going to see a softening of volumes as a result of the tax credit going away. We’re also seeing prices not holding up as well as we expected given how low the mortgages are.”

    Lashinsky also stated in the interview that sellers who failed to get a deal prior to the tax credit expirations are not sitting in the most enviable of positions at this point in time.

    “The sellers who missed out on the tax credit in getting their home price range sold are a little more worried now. They’re not seeing as much activity and they’re not seeing as many multiple offers. And so sellers are feeling more pressure than they did even just 30 days ago.”

    Where do you think home prices are headed in the foreseeable future? When do you expect the real estate to bottom out? Let us know in the comments section below.

    Category: Mortgage Rates

  6. Mortgage Applications Drop to Lowest Volume in 13 Years

    By on June 9, 2010

    mortgage-bankers-association-us

    The Mortgage Bankers Association reported this morning in its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey that the volume of mortgage applications filed in the United States last week slipped 12.2 percent from the previous week. It was the fifth-straight week that applications fell, and was the lowest volume level since February 1997.

    This week’s results include an adjustment to account for the Memorial Day holiday.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 21.1 percent compared with the previous week.

    The decline of mortgage applications in the past month reinforces the notion that the first-time home buyer tax credit and repeat home buyer tax credit forced buyers to scramble before the April 30 expiration dates, subsequently depleting future sales as people rushed to take advantage of the rebates.

    “Purchase applications are now 35 percent below their level of four weeks ago, as homebuyers have not yet returned to the market following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit at the end of April,” Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics, said in a statement.

    The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index fell 5.7 percent last week and the Refinance Index fell off by 14.3 percent. The slowdown in refinance applications was the first time in a month that it went backwards, and Fratantoni suggest that the plunge implies many homeowners who qualify for refinancing have done so already.

    “Although rates remained essentially flat, refinance applications dropped this past week for the first time in a month.  Despite the historically low rates, many homeowners have already refinanced recently, remain underwater on their mortgages, have uncertain job situations, or have damaged credit following this downturn, and therefore may not qualify to refinance,” said Fratantoni.

    Of all the mortgage applications filed last week, 72.2 percent were for refinancing loans, down from 73.8 percent from the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 5.1 percent from 5.2 percent of total applications from the previous week, which is the third consecutive weekly decrease.

    Also from the MBA weekly report:

    The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.81 percent from 4.83 percent, with points decreasing to 1.02 from 1.05 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.  The effective rate also decreased from last week.

    The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.26 percent from 4.24 percent, with points decreasing to 0.95 from 1.11 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

    The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.94 percent from 6.96 percent, with points increasing to 0.30 from 0.27 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

    Category: Mortgage Rates

  7. Disappointing Job Growth Not Good News For Home Buying, Mortgage Markets

    By on June 4, 2010

    Of the 431,000 jobs created last month, 411,000 of them were temporary Census Bureau positions.  The government added a net total of 390,000 workers in May after cuts in other areas.  That does not translate into many long-term, verifiable incomes that aspiring home buyers are required to have in order to get approved for mortgages.
    census
    It doesn’t seem that the addition of only 41,000 private sector positions can create much of a dent in the number of people who want to actively purchase a home, particularly with respect to the huge inventory of homes still on the market in many states. The most recent report of housing inventory on the market from the National Association of Realtors stated there are 4 million homes for sale nationwide.

    Additionally, with home prices having declined in the first quarter of 2010, it’s tough to imagine May’s relatively paltry employment gains can help turn things around and boost real estate values in the short term.

    While home sales spiked in April, May and June thanks to the home buyer tax credit incentives offered by the federal government – which expired April 30, but gives buyers until June 30 to close – we have already seen a huge drop off in mortgage purchase applications since the expiration date, and the vast majority of activity has gone into refinancing in the past five weeks since the tax credits expired.

    Today’s unemployment numbers don’t seem they will provide much stimulus to this recent activity.

    Category: Mortgage Rates

  8. Mortgage Rates At Yearly Lows To Start Business Week

    By on June 1, 2010

    The mortgage market witnessed gains on Friday, which was a reversal from Thursday’s losses. That trend continues this morning as bonds are higher due to stock prices falling globally. This week’s economic calendar is abbreviated due to the long Memorial Day weekend with the all-important employment report for May due out on Friday.

    Little transpired over the long Memorial Day weekend to affect the low current mortgage rates at Total Mortgage Services, LLC. Mortgage rates are still being offered by Total Mortgage at their lowest levels of 2010 for prospective home loan and financing options.

    The 30-year fixed conventional mortgage continues to be offered at a 4.375 percent and 4.583 percent APR, and the 30-year fixed FHA is listed at a 4.250 percent rate 5.178 percent APR.

    Also of note, the 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage is coming in at 3.125 percent, with a 3.547 APR, and the 1/1 ARM is now at a 3.150 percent rate and 3.922 percent APR.

    Current mortgage rates are updated frequently at TotalMortgage.com, in addition to daily insight and analysis on mortgage industry news and information.

    As of 9:30 a.m. on June 1, 2010, the following rates were listed at Total Mortgage:

    Loan Type Rate APR
    30-Year Fixed Conventional 4.375% 4.583%
    20-Year Fixed Conventional 4.250% 4.535%
    15-Year Fixed Conventional 3.875% 4.236%
    30-Year Fixed FHA 4.250% 5.178%
    30-Year Fixed Jumbo Mortgage 5.250% 5.463%
    15-Year Fixed Jumbo Mortgage 4.000% 4.352%
    5/1 ARM Conforming Mortgage 3.125% 3.547%
    5/1 ARM Jumbo Mortgage 3.500% 3.265%
    1/1 ARM Conforming Mortgage (0 Points) 3.150% 3.922%
    1/1 ARM Jumbo Mortgage (0 Points) 3.150% 3.794%

    For a full list of mortgage rates and mortgage products visit TotalMortgage.com for additional information.

    * All rates shown are for 30 day rate locks. Longer locks available. The APR for conventional loan amounts is calculated using a loan amount of $417,000, 2 points, a $495 application fee, $500 loan processing fee, $715 underwriting fee and a $16 flood certification fee. The APR for jumbo loan amounts is calculated using a loan amount of $500,000, two points, a $495 application fee, $500 loan processing fee, $715 underwriting fee and a $16 flood certification fee. The APR for FHA loan amounts is calculated using a loan amount of $295,000, two points, a $495 application fee, $500 loan processing fee, $715 underwriting fee and a $16 flood certification fee. Some rates and fees may vary by state. All interest rates listed are for qualified applicants and are subject to mortgage approval. All rates are subject to change without notice.

    Category: Mortgage Rates

  9. Home Shoppers Working With Low Mortgage Rates Memorial Day Weekend

    By on May 28, 2010

    For people who plan on spending part of their upcoming holiday weekend home shopping, Total Mortgage is still offering some of the lowest mortgage rates in the industry for those who intend on buying a house in the near future, or are considering refinancing their existing mortgages.

    Mortgage rates will likely stay flat this weekend, and their future levels will hinge on a variety of factors, but it’s hard to envision them falling much further.

    Bond prices dropped sharply yesterday as investors once again bought stocks and Euros after China’s announcement that it did not plan on reducing its holdings in Europe. Also, five-year, 10, and 30-year Treasury yields rose 20bp or more during the past couple days.

    In other developments, personal income equaled expectations while personal spending was lighter-than-expected in April. Additionally, the core personal consumption expenditures deflator rose .1 percent for the month and 1.2 percent year-over-year, keeping the inflation rate well within the Fed’s comfort zone

    Nationally, mortgage rates are at their lowest points of the year, and at Total Mortgage many of the low mortgage rates are below the industry average. The 30-year fixed is at an attractive 4.375 percent rate and 4.583 percent APR, and the 30-year Fixed FHA is sitting at a low 4.250 percent rate and 5.178 percent APR.

    Current mortgage rates are updated continuously on Total Mortgage’s website, in addition to daily insight and perspective on mortgage industry news and trends.

    As of 9:55 am on May 28, 2010, the following mortgage rates were listed at Total Mortgage Services, LLC:

    Loan Type Rate APR
    30-Year Fixed Conventional 4.375% 4.583%
    20-Year Fixed Conventional 4.250% 4.535%
    15-Year Fixed Conventional 3.875% 4.236%
    30-Year Fixed FHA 4.250% 5.178%
    30-Year Fixed Jumbo Mortgage 5.250% 5.463%
    15-Year Fixed Jumbo Mortgage 4.000% 4.352%
    5/1 ARM Conforming Mortgage 3.125% 3.547%
    5/1 ARM Jumbo Mortgage 3.500% 3.265%
    1/1 ARM Conforming Mortgage (0 Points) 3.150% 3.922%
    1/1 ARM Jumbo Mortgage (0 Points) 3.150% 3.794%

    For a full list of mortgage rates and mortgage products visit TotalMortgage.com for additional information.

    * All rates shown are for 30 day rate locks. Longer locks available. The APR for conventional loan amounts is calculated using a loan amount of $417,000, 2 points, a $495 application fee, $500 loan processing fee, $715 underwriting fee and a $16 flood certification fee. The APR for jumbo loan amounts is calculated using a loan amount of $500,000, two points, a $495 application fee, $500 loan processing fee, $715 underwriting fee and a $16 flood certification fee. The APR for FHA loan amounts is calculated using a loan amount of $295,000, two points, a $495 application fee, $500 loan processing fee, $715 underwriting fee and a $16 flood certification fee. Some rates and fees may vary by state. All interest rates listed are for qualified applicants and are subject to mortgage approval. All rates are subject to change without notice.

    Category: Mortgage Rates

  10. Freddie Mac Survey: Mortgage Rates At Lowest Point of Year

    By on May 27, 2010

    freddie-mac-historic-mortgage-rates-resized-6001Falling Treasury yields helped push national mortgage rates closer to their record-low levels seen last December, the weekly Freddie Mac survey reported today.

    The average rate on the 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 4.78 percent for the week ending Thursday, May 27, down from last week’s mark of 4.84 percent. It is the lowest average of the year in the country.

    The 30-year fixed, which is the most common mortgage program, is now ever so close to its all-time lowest average since Freddie started conducting the survey back in 1971. The record low is a 4.71 percent rate for the week ending December 3 of last year.

    Rates on the 15-year fixed mortgage did hit a record low     however, averaging out at 4.21 percent. Freddie Mac began tracking the 15-year fixed in 1991.

    Additionally, rates on five-year, adjustable-rate mortgages (5/1 ARM) averaged 3.97 percent, up from 3.91 percent a week ago. And rates on one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages (1/1 ARM) fell to 3.95 percent from 4.00 percent.

    The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount.

    Category: Mortgage Rate Trends and Analysis

LOOKING TO BUY OR REFINANCE?

Or Call us at 877-868-2503