Posts Tagged ‘mortgage’

United States — Tuesday, September 7, 2010

National mortgage rates on 30-year fixed mortgages fell 1 basis points from 4.34% to 4.33% on September 7, 2010, according to Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. As a comparison, state rates ranged from a low of 4.25% (FL) to a high of 4.53% (VI).

Compared to the week prior to September 7, 2010, the national 30-year mortgage rate is up 5 basis points from 4.28%. Compared to three months ago, the 30-year rate is down 31 basis points from its average rate of 4.64%.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 27, 2010. The MBA's loan application survey covers over 50% of all U.S. residential mortgage loan applications taken by retail mortgage bankers, commercial banks, and thrifts. The data gives economists a snapshot view of consumer demand for mortgage loans. In a low mortgage rate environment, a trend of increasing refinance applications implies consumers are seeking out a lower monthly payment. If consumers are able to reduce their monthly mortgage payment and increase disposable income through refinancing, it can be a positive for the economy as a whole (creates more consumer spending or allows debtors to pay down personal liabilities like credit cards). A falling trend of...(read more)

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 13, 2010. The MBA's loan application survey covers over 50% of all U.S. residential mortgage loan applications taken by retail mortgage bankers, commercial banks, and thrifts. The data gives economists a snapshot view of consumer demand for mortgage loans. In a low mortgage rate environment, a trend of increasing refinance applications implies consumers are seeking out a lower monthly payment. If consumers are able to reduce their monthly mortgage payment and increase disposable income through refinancing, it can be a positive for the economy as a whole (creates more consumer spending or allows debtors to pay down personal liabilities like credit cards). A falling trend...(read more)

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage hit 4.44 percent this week, mortgage buyerFreddie Mac said Thursday. And some brokers say homeowners looking to refinance have even managed to do so for as low as 4 percent.

Still, cheap rates have done little to boost the struggling housing market. Instead, they are highlighting investors’ fears that the rebound is stalling and the country could be slipping back into a recession.

Investors are shifting their money away from stocks and into safer Treasury bonds. That is sending Treasury yields lower. Mortgage rates track those yields.

And the Federal Reserve is pushing those yields down even further. The central bank said Tuesday it would buy Treasurys to help aid the recovery, using the proceeds from debt and mortgage-backed securities it bought from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

That move alone is unlikely to push average rates down to 4 percent, said Bob Walters, chief economist at Quicken Loans. But average rates that low are still a possibility if the economic outlook worsens even further.

“The silver lining to a bad economy is that interest rates fall,” Walters said. “If you can lower your debt burden by refinancing, that’s great.”

Up to now, low rates have failed to spark a struggling housing market. Slow job growth, a 9.5 percent unemployment rate and tight credit standards have kept people from buying homes. Applications to refinance have grown but remain well short of a massive boom.

Overall home loan applications rose only 0.6 percent last week from a week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.

For those homeowners with solid finances, the opportunity to refinance below 4 percent is persuading some to consider 15-year fixed loans. Those average rates dropped to 3.92 percent, down from 3.95 percent last week and the lowest in decades.

More homeowners are choosing that option because it allows them to save money in the long run, though it costs more in monthly payments. Freddie Mac says nearly a third of borrowers refinancing 30-year loans in the April-to-June picked loans with 15-year or 20-year terms.

Still, savvy consumers can already find 30-year fixed rates at or near 4 percent if they are willing to pay a little more upfront.

Chik Quintans, assistant sales manager with Atlas Mortgage in Seattle, said he was able to get two clients into mortgages with a 4 percent interest rate and a fee of 1 percent of the total mortgage amount on Wednesday. But rates have inched up since then.

“Every day’s different,” Quintans said. “Sometimes people have to ruminate, and then the opportunity’s gone.”

Refinancing could pick up significantly if rates fall further. An average rate below 4.375 percent could be enough of a drop so that many people who refinanced last year could shave a half of a percentage point of their mortgage rates, said Scott Buchta, chief mortgage strategist with Braver Stern Securities.

Lenders could find themselves in a bind if traffic picks up, Buchta said. Many have laid off thousands of workers over the past three years and don’t have enough staff to handle a crush of new applications.

Mortgage rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a given day. To calculate the national average, Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates on Monday through Wednesday of each week from about 125 banks, thrifts and credit unions around the country in a voluntary survey.

Rate quotes from parts of the country with more lending activity—such as the West and Northeast—are given more weight in creating the average.

Rates on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 3.56 percent, down from 3.63 percent a week earlier. Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to an average of 3.53 percent from 3.55 percent.

The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount. The nationwide fee for loans in Freddie Mac’s survey averaged 0.7 a point for all loans except for 15-year mortgages, which averaged 0.6 of a point.

URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/38674782/

United States — Sunday, August 15, 2010

National mortgage rates on 30-year fixed mortgages remained stable at 4.29% on August 15, 2010, according to Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. As a comparison, state rates ranged from a low of 4.20% (HI) to a high of 4.46% (NV).

Compared to the week prior to August 15, 2010, the national 30-year mortgage rate remained stable at 4.29%. Compared to three months ago, the 30-year rate is down 48 basis points from its average rate of 4.77%.

Average Mortgage Rates
30 Yr FRM	4.43%	-0.03%
15 Yr FRM	3.81%	-0.02%
FHA 30 Year	4.45%	-0.03%
Jumbo 30 Year	5.71%	-0.02%
5/1 Yr ARM	3.47%	-0.03%
View Current Mortgage Rates | Compare Rates	Updated: 8/10/10 7:58 PM

Provided by Mortgage News Daily

This information is not an advertisement to extend consumer credit as defined by Section 226.2 of Regulation Z. This is not an offer to enter into an agreement regarding interest rates. The rates quoted do not include discount points, origination points, or loan level risk based price adjustments.  Rates and terms are subject to change without notice.

 

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Using the farm crisis of the early 1980s as a model, two economists have refuted several of the arguments against legislation that would permit bankruptcy judges to cramdown or stripdown of mortgage loans. Thomas J. Fitzpatrick IV and James B Thomson, economists with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, published their paper, Stripdowns and Bankruptcy: Lessons from Agricultural Bankruptcy Reform in the bank's Economic Commentary on its website. Allowing stripdowns of mortgages during Chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganization has been suggested as one way to deal with the housing crisis. If such legislation were passed, bankruptcy judges would be allowed to reduce the outstanding balance on a mortgage loan to the actual value of the underlying collateral, turning the remaining balance of the...(read more)

Mortgage rates went into the weekend at new record lows last Friday. This was the ALERT we published on Rate Watch... ALERT : There are some lenders out there, if the APP--to--CLOSING process is flawless, where a borrower could close at 4.25% right now, without paying more than 1 pt. But you're loan file is gonna have to be a real slam dunk. You must be the definition of "well-qualified". Mortgage rates moved lower as a result of continued high demand for agency mortgage-backed securities. We have described this demand as a "flight to safety" , but from another perspective, what it really boils down to is the highly-competitive loan origination environment. READ MORE A flight to safety happens when investors are nervous about owning risky assets like stocks, but do not...(read more)

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 23, 2010. The MBA's loan application survey covers over 50% of all U.S. residential mortgage loan applications taken by mortgage bankers, commercial banks, and thrifts. The data gives economists a snapshot view of consumer demand for mortgage loans. In a low mortgage rate environment, a trend of increasing refinance applications implies consumers are seeking out a lower monthly payment. If consumers are able to reduce their monthly mortgage payment and increase disposable income through refinancing, it can be a positive for the economy as a whole (creates more consumer spending or allows debtors to pay down personal liabilities like credit cards). A falling trend of purchase...(read more)

Average Mortgage Rates
30 Yr FRM	4.68%	0.02%
15 Yr FRM	4.06%	0.01%
FHA 30 Year	4.69%	0.01%
Jumbo 30 Year	6.10%	0.02%
5/1 Yr ARM	3.70%	0.02%
View Current Mortgage Rates | Compare Rates	Updated: 7/20/10 8:15 PM

Provided by Mortgage News Daily

This information is not an advertisement to extend consumer credit as defined by Section 226.2 of Regulation Z. This is not an offer to enter into an agreement regarding interest rates. The rates quoted do not include discount points, origination points, or loan level risk based price adjustments.  Rates and terms are subject to change without notice.

 

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