Calm, but Good Week For Mortgage Refinance
During the past couple months, it seemed like a new major event was occurring each week relating to home loan refinance. Big news on government plans causing rates to plummet, while loan program restrictions increased. Housing values, construction numbers, employment, and the stock market bounce caused quite a joy ride on the refinance front.
It’s nice to catch your breath every once in a while, and the past week has allowed just that. Mortgage rates had been steadily rising off the 3.0 percent breach of the 10-Year Treasury Yield, but the last several days has brought a reprieve for the rate sensitive consumer, allowing them to lock rates at near all-time lows once again.
On the home value front, The National Association of Realtors said today that the median sales prices of existing homes declined in 134 out of 152 metropolitan areas compared with the same period a year ago. Prices rose in the other 18 cities. The median home sales price nationwide was $169,900, down 13.8 percent from a year ago. The median price is the midpoint, which means half of the homes sold for more and half for less.
It is expected that home sales will increase into the second half of this year, and that could finally bring the brakes to falling prices. Home price stabilization would be just the kick-start we need for a healthy home mortgage lending environment and a revitalized economy.
I keep getting the question “Are rates going to drop further”? Unfortunately, I do not know whether they will or not. There are too many major variables (currently volatile) involved to give any mortgage to give a prediction with any degree of accuracy at all.
About the only thing that I do know for certain is that mortgage rates are currently at historic low levels for conventional and FHA refinancing programs.
Remember though, the best deals for conventional are for 80 LTV and under loans for those with good to excellent credit. FHA also has great deals for over 80 LTV loans for those with a 620 mid credit score or higher, but the cap LTV for a cash-out refinance is at 85 percent, while a regular rate-term FHA refinance remains at 96.5 percent.
Holding off now for lower rates in the future could be a risky proposition on your part if you are pre-qualified on a program providing significant benefit. My suggestion is to lock while the getting is good and not worry where rates go from there. Waiting for a slight decrease in mortgage rate is too much of a risk to take when you are sitting on a current good to excellent refinance benefit scenario.
May the Mortgage Refinance Rates be with You!
Refinance Tool Box
It’s nice to catch your breath every once in a while, and the past week has allowed just that. Mortgage rates had been steadily rising off the 3.0 percent breach of the 10-Year Treasury Yield, but the last several days has brought a reprieve for the rate sensitive consumer, allowing them to lock rates at near all-time lows once again.
On the home value front, The National Association of Realtors said today that the median sales prices of existing homes declined in 134 out of 152 metropolitan areas compared with the same period a year ago. Prices rose in the other 18 cities. The median home sales price nationwide was $169,900, down 13.8 percent from a year ago. The median price is the midpoint, which means half of the homes sold for more and half for less.
It is expected that home sales will increase into the second half of this year, and that could finally bring the brakes to falling prices. Home price stabilization would be just the kick-start we need for a healthy home mortgage lending environment and a revitalized economy.
I keep getting the question “Are rates going to drop further”? Unfortunately, I do not know whether they will or not. There are too many major variables (currently volatile) involved to give any mortgage to give a prediction with any degree of accuracy at all.
About the only thing that I do know for certain is that mortgage rates are currently at historic low levels for conventional and FHA refinancing programs.
Remember though, the best deals for conventional are for 80 LTV and under loans for those with good to excellent credit. FHA also has great deals for over 80 LTV loans for those with a 620 mid credit score or higher, but the cap LTV for a cash-out refinance is at 85 percent, while a regular rate-term FHA refinance remains at 96.5 percent.
Holding off now for lower rates in the future could be a risky proposition on your part if you are pre-qualified on a program providing significant benefit. My suggestion is to lock while the getting is good and not worry where rates go from there. Waiting for a slight decrease in mortgage rate is too much of a risk to take when you are sitting on a current good to excellent refinance benefit scenario.
May the Mortgage Refinance Rates be with You!
Refinance Tool Box
Labels: business, credit scores, economy, fha refinance, finance, home loans, money, mortgage rates, refinance, refinance rates, refinancing
posted by Jim Bisnett at
1:24 PM
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