Jacksonville's Home Loan and Mortgage Broker

When conforming mortgages adjust, they’re often tied to an interest rate index called LIBOR.

LIBOR is an acronym for London Interbank Offered Rate. But what LIBOR stands for isn’t as important as the role it plays.

LIBOR is an interest rate at which banks borrow money from each other. Therefore, when banks feel the banking system as a whole is unsafe, LIBOR rises to compensate.

It’s why LIBOR spiked last October after Lehman Brothers failed. Financial institutions wondered what other institutions would fail and that added risk to the system.

Since October, however, and because of massive government interventions worldwide, LIBOR has been on a steady retreat. Moreover, with close to $30 billion in conforming mortgages scheduled to adjust by Labor Day, the timing couldn’t be better for homeowners with conforming ARMs.

Typically, a Fannie Mae- or Freddie Mac-backed mortgage adjusts once annually. The adjusted interest rate is always equal to some constant — usually 2.250 percent — plus the rate of LIBOR on the date of adjustment.

As a math formula, the ARM formula might like this:

New Mortgage Rate = LIBOR + 2.250 percent

In October, when LIBOR was above 4 percent, a homeowner’s ARM may have adjusted to 6 1/2 percent. Today, that same ARM would move to four-and-a-quarter.

As a strategy play, it might make sense to let your ARM adjust because the rate will remain low, but with fixed rate mortgages hovering near 5 percent, locking up a long-term rate may be smart, too.

Talk to your loan officer to review all of your choices.

There are 138 million taxpayers in the United States and, according to the IRS, 20 percent of them file their taxes within 7 days of April 15. In a holiday-shortened week, that means that 27 million people had better get a move on.

And while a portion of this year’s last-minute filers will file with storefront operations like Liberty Tax Service or H&R Block, many others will self-prepare with the help of tax software from TurboTax or TaxCut.

If you’re a member of the do-it-yourself crowd, consider taking a review of this year’s tax law changes before starting your returns. The stimulus package signed into law this past February made a profound impact on tax liability and the list of changes may be helpful for you.

A few of the new, allowable income tax deductions for 2008 include:

• Mortgage debt forgiveness in the event of a short sale
• An additional standard deduction on real estate taxes paid
• $8,000 tax credit for homes bought since January 1, 2009

TurboTax offers 4 tax filing choices online, ranging in price from $100 to free. If you’re among the 27 million yet to file, choose whichever program fits best — just choose it before April 15.

Filing could take several hours. Plan accordingly.

April 4, 2009, marked the official start of the Making Home Affordable refinance program.

Expected to help 5 million homeowners, the Making Home Affordable program “looks the other way” with respect to falling home values, approving mortgage applications based on borrower payment history and benefit to the homeowner.

Not every homeowner is eligible for a Making Home Affordable refinance, however. There are 3 basic criteria that must be met.

First, your existing home loan must be backed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Thankfully, both companies provide online lookup services. Start with the Fannie Mae site because Fannie has a greater market share and because Freddie Mac’s site requires your social security number.

Next, you must have a perfect mortgage payment history over the last 12 months. Even one payment made 30 days late disqualifies you from participating in the Making Home Affordable program. It is okay, however, if you were 20 days late on your payment and incurred late fees.

And lastly, the balance on your mortgage cannot exceed your home’s value by more than 5%. The math formula is (Mortgage Balance) / (Home Value). If the quotient is greater than 1.05 then your loan-to-value exceeds 105% and you are not eligible for Making Home Affordable.

Now, assuming you meet the criteria, there are some noteworthy details of the Making Home Affordable program:

1. If you didn’t pay mortgage insurance prior to refinancing, you won’t have to pay it after refinancing — even if your loan-to-value exceeds 80%.
2. All refinances require income verification — even if the original mortgage was a stated income loan.
3. Second mortgages cannot be paid off using loan proceeds — they must be subordinated

There are other guidelines, too, and both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have dedicated portions of their website to the Making Home Affordable program. To the layperson, unfortunately, the information may be a bit technical.

Even the government’s fact sheet can be a little dense at times.

Therefore, if you have specific questions about the Making Home Affordable program and your own eligibility, first check to see if Fannie or Freddie is backing your loan. If they are, pick up the phone and call your loan officer to plan next steps.

The program ends June 10, 2010.

Mortgage markets were up-and-down last week as rates fell Monday and Tuesday before surging higher from Wednesday through Friday.

In some case, after touching all-time lows, conforming mortgage rates added a half-percent in the second half of the week, ruining some homeowners’ chance to refinance.

It was the second week in a row that mortgage rates worsened.

One reason why mortgage rates are up is because investors are turning bullish on the economy, even as it sputters.

From investors’ perspective, the data is weak, but not as weak as it has been — or could have been. It’s a glass-is-half-full approach and it’s the opposite of how Wall Street worked in 2008.

For example, from last week:

1. Consumer Confidence measured a paltry 26.0 — but the reading was up from February’s all-time lows
2. The Case-Shiller Index showed a big drop in home prices — but the report ignores strong housing data from the last 60 days
3. Unemployment rates reached 8.5 percent nationally — but employment is a lagging indicator for the economy

In time, we’ll learn whether investors were on-time or premature in their bets for an economic turnaround but, for now, the mere belief that the economy is improving is leading mortgage rates higher. And until Wall Street’s sentiment changes, rates should continue in that direction.

This week, there won’t be much chance to change traders’ minds. For one, it’s a holiday-shortened week. Secondly, there’s just one release of importance to markets — Wednesday’s release of the March Fed Minutes.

Mortgage rates may not rise for the third week in a row this week but long-term momentum is working against rate shoppers. If you see a rate you like, consider locking it. Before long, it might be gone.

Thursday morning, homeowners in different parts of the country awoke to find similar-sounding newspaper headlines:

• Rates on 30-year mortgages sink to 4.78%, a new low (LA Times)
• Mortgage rates at record low for 2nd week (Miami Herald)
• Mortgages hit another record low (San Francisco)

The underlying story was that Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed the lowest, average 30-year fixed rate mortgage in its 38-year, rate-tracking history.

Once again, however, the headlines came too late for homeowners.

Prior to Thursday’s market open, mortgage markets had already worsened from their record-setting levels. Slowly at first, and then with momentum. The shift pressured rates higher so that when lenders issued their Thursday morning rate sheets, most showed an 1/8 increase from Wednesday’s close.

The negative momentum carried into the afternoon, too, forcing a second increase of an 1/8 percent.

The Freddie Mac survey may have been accurate when the sun came up Thursday, but by the time the sun went down, it wasn’t even close. It’s why you can’t do your rate shopping by watching newspaper headlines. Mortgage markets are volatile and rates often change without notice.

Thursday, they did it twice.

The number of homes under contract to sell is rising, another signal that the housing market may be regaining its footing.

As reported by an industry trade group, the Pending Home Sales Index gained 2 percent in February. The report measures MLS-listed homes in “pending” status — sold but not yet closed.

Pending Home Sales is not a perfect statistic, though, by any means.

For one, the Pending Home Sales Index doesn’t account for non-MLS listed homes including For Sale By Owner properties and mass foreclosure auctions. In certain markets nationwide, these two categories represent a large percentage of the overall transaction volume.

Secondly, Pending Home Sales samples just 20 percent of all MLS-based transactions — hardly a complete listing.

But most importantly, a “pending” home sale is not the same as a closed home sale. A lot of things can go wrong between the time a home goes under contract and the supposed closing date. For example, the home inspection could fail, the contract could fall apart, and/or the buyer’s financing could be denied in underwriting.

All things equal, though, Pending Home Sales is a fair forward-looking indicator for the housing market as a measurement of buy-side demand for homes.

When Pending Home Sales rise, it’s tells us that buyers and sellers are matching up, clearing out market inventory. And actual home sales often follow “pending” ones — 80 percent of Pending Home Sales will close within 60 days.

A report published Tuesday showed that home values fell nearly 3 percent in January 2009 versus the month prior and by 19 percent from last year.

On the surface, data from the study looks like more bad news for housing. With deeper inspection, though, we uncover reasons to discount the report’s finding.

For one, the report includes home price data from just 20 cities around the country — and they’re not the 20 most populated cities, either.

For example, data from #4-ranked Houston is not included and neither is #7 San Antonio nor #10 San Jose. #54 Tampa, however, is included.

Secondly, the report is two months lagging.

Published March 31, its data is only accurate as of January and a lot has happened in the last 2 months. This includes a record-drop in interest rates and the introduction of an $8,000 tax credit for qualified first-time home buyers. The stimulus has helped raise home sales volume on both new homes and previously-owned ones.

And lastly, one more reason to question the relevance of the Case-Shiller report is that a government study on the same topic showed home values rising over the same period, not falling. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, home values grew 1.7 percent from December 2008 to January 2009.

In the end, home values are a local phenomenon that can’t be summarized as a national “summary”. National data can be helpful for watching longer-term trends, but it shouldn’t be used to make a “Buy or Not Buy” decision.

For that, talk with a real estate professional with access to local data instead.

Source
List of United States cities by population
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population

With mortgage rates are hovering near all-time lows, lots of Americans are taking advantage of refinance and home buying opportunities.

The downside of today’s unexpectedly-low rates, though, is that mortgage lenders are ill-equipped for the rush of new business.

As a result, the process of underwriting and approving new mortgage applications is taking some conforming lenders as long as 2 months to complete.

This is double the time needed as recently as six months ago.

Because there may be 60 days between the application date and the closing date, it’s important for applicants to remember that mortgage approvals can be revoked at any time prior to funding.

As mortgage applicants, there are many events that are out of our control — job security and health matters, for example. But there are also events that are within our control.

Knowing that mortgage approvals can be fragile, here are 8 things you should absolutely not do while your home loan is in process. It may be the difference between being approved by the bank, and being turned down.

1. Don’t buy a new car or trade-up to a bigger lease.
2. Don’t quit your job to change industries
3. Don’t switch from a salaried job to a heavily-commissioned job
4. Don’t transfer large sums of money between bank accounts
5. Don’t forget to pay your bills — even the ones in dispute
6. Don’t open new credit cards — even if you’re getting 20% off
7. Don’t accept a cash gift without filing the proper “gift” paperwork
8. Don’t make random, undocumented deposits into your bank account

Now, avoiding these items may not be practical for everyone. For example, if your car lease is expiring and you need a larger vehicle, it doesn’t mean you can’t buy the car — just check with your loan officer first to be sure the new payments won’t “break” your approval.

The same goes for accepting cash gifts from parents. There’s a right way and a wrong way to accept gifts and doing it the wrong way may prevent you from using the gift as a source of downpayment.

Mortgage lending is full of “gotchas” and with underwriting times stretching to 60 days, it’s a lot more likely that a mortgage applicant will trip into one. Following these 8 rules, though, is a good start.

The stock markets made strong gains last week but the mortgage markets barely moved in the wake of the Treasury’s “toxic asset” plan.

After carving out wide trading ranges on most days, mortgage pricing ended the week slightly worse overall.

From an economic standpoint, though, last week was an interesting one.

• Existing home sales showed unexpected strength
• New home sales showed unexpected strength
• Data showed home prices rising unexpectedly

In addition, consumer confidence rose unexpectedly, too.

To rate shoppers, these “unexpected” developments are warnings worth heeding because mortgages trade on expectations of the future. And “the future”, you’ll remember was widely expected to be an economic abyss.

This is one of the many reasons why mortgage rates are so low right now — during uncertain times, investors flock to safe investments. But when those expectations change, mortgage rates usually do, too.

And quickly.

Our current recession has been thus far called “housing-led” and was predicted to last several years. Last week’s data, however, provides at least some evidence that the recession may be ending; that the economy may find its way forward sooner rather than later.

Indeed, even members of the Federal Reserve now call for a turnaround starting in as few as 6 months.

For now, market reaction to the unexpected data has been tepid. Therefore, watch for developments over the coming weeks and — perhaps more importantly — keep an eye on the investor mindset. If bond markets start to sell-off en masse, don’t be surprised if mortgage rates race higher by quarter-point leaps at a time.

Meanwhile, this week, the biggest data release is Friday’s jobs report. It’s expected to show unemployment reaching to 8.5% with another 656,000 Americans losing their jobs in March. As before, if the data isn’t as bad as expected, watch for stocks to rise and mortgage rates to go with them.

If you’re in want of a cash out refinance, the most liberal cash-out program in town is about to make qualification more difficult.

Effective April 1, 2009, the FHA is reducing the maximum loan-to-value on cash-out refinances by 10 percent, dropping the loan size limit from 95% of the home’s value to 85%.

In its official press release, the FHA days it’s making the change to “limit its exposure to undue risk”.

It also lists the following cash-out requirements:

• With less than 12 months since the purchase date, a home’s value cannot exceed its original purchase price — even if home improvements were made.
• A homeowner must be current on his mortgage payments to qualify
• A second, verifying appraisal may be necessary, depending on loan traits
• Co-signers may not be added to the mortgage note in order to qualify

The last day to register a FHA 95% cash out refinance is Tuesday, March 31, 2009. The loan does not need to be “locked” — only registered.

So, if you know that a 95% cash out FHA refinance is in your future, talk to your loan officer before Wednesday morning about registration.