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Just a quick look at last week’s mortgage bond market. Up and down (red is bad) in huge strokes all week long. I hope you see how important it is to work with a mortgage professional that not only has access to this data, but understands how to use it to your advantage. It could make a huge difference in how much interest you pay over the life of your loan!

Here’s to hoping this week starts off with a bang and we can keep these historically low rates for a little while longer (so far it’s already looking good)!

-Greg

I was once told that FHA IS MORTGAGE INSURANCE. FHA is the government’s program that allows more Americans to own homes. They have both purchase and refinance programs designed to allow those with less of a down payment (equity for refiance customers) and/or lower credit scores than the conventional mortgage market will allow. To keep the program safe and tax payers off the hook for FHA losses, HUD employs a mortgage insurance premium to keep the program viable. EVERY FHA LOAN HAS MORTGAGE INSURANCE (MI). This MI premium keeps the program solvent, allowing for the program to continue and more people to become homeowners.

Recently, with the decline of conventional financial availability, FHA’s market-share has grown. So much so that they needed to make a change to keep the program running well. These changes will make a negligible difference to homeowners payments but will keep the program up and running for the long term. Up until these changes took place the UFMIP premium for an FHA loan was 2.25% of the loan amount. Although this amount is not required to be paid by the homeowner at closing it is financed into the loan, making the loan amount thousands of dollars higher than it otherwise would be and increasing the monthly payment accordingly. The annual MIP was .55% (or .50% with at least 5% down payment) but that is not being raised to .90% (or .85% with at least 5% down payment). This, of course, is going to increase monthly payments.

What does this mean? Well, not much in the beginning. Those obtaining FHA financing will have smaller loans, a good thing, but their monthly payment will be increasing but about the cost of a trip for two to the movies (without popcorn, candy, and drinks!). Not a bad price to pay to keep these programs viable and starting out with a smaller loan. But that still seems like a negative on the surface. Higher monthly payments, no matter how small the increase may be, is a negative.

However that is not looking at things in the long term. One thing to remember is, FHA’s mortgage insurance is only required to be in place for 5 years, or when the mortgage balance reaches 78% of the original purchase price, whichever comes last. Anyone that keeps their home long enough to realize the deletion of the annual MIP will see huge savings over today’s situation. To keep it simple, their monthly mortgage payment without the MIP will be less from day one because they are only financing the Up Front MIP of 1% of the loan amount, not a whopping 2.25% as they are today, so their loan amount is smaller. That principal and interest payment is the same for the life of the loan and when that MIP premium they are paying for the first 5 years falls off, their payment will be reduced drastically.

In the short term this change will not mean much to people; loan amounts will be a little smaller, the overall payment will be a tad higher, and this valuable program will stay in effect for more Americans to utilize to become homeowners or refinance to today’s incredibly low rates. Those that keep their homes/loans for 5, 10, 15, 20+ years will realize huge savings in the later years. Seems like a win-win to me.

Your Local Expert,
Greg Cowart

The payroll report has confirmation: new unemployment has held high for five months; May retail sales look soggy and auto sales flubbed in May.

In days ahead, the entire recovery camp from government to stock-pushers has more than explaining to do. It must change its mind.

All in one fur-ball: How can mortgage rates be so low, and home prices so low, home affordability the best ever measured, yet housing defies recovery? One unifying answer: credit. Not enough, and wildly too tight. The credit dearth is perfectly rational. At default rates like these, nobody knows what new loan is safe to make, and underwriting has been overtaken by hand-shaking, eye-glazed panic. The horrifying conundrum: new loans will inevitably produce new losses, yet without enough new loans, losses on existing ones will be greatly higher.

The good thing for us is hidden in the above. Rates are at all-time lows and home affordability has never been better, the perfect storm. And even though it may not seem like it, we’re lucky here in California. Throughout the rest of the country the loss of the $8,000 home buyer tax credit has taken it’s toll as purchase applications are down sharply from a month ago (even though prices are the same and rates are lower) but we have another $10,000 tax credit available to use here in California! The local Sacramento area market is actually looking up with an every so slight month-over-month and year-over-year price increases in housing. Uber-low rates, dropping unemployment rates, and value in home prices coupled with that free $10,000 tax credit available to many Californian homebuyers should help that continue until the economy and national housing starts to pick up as well.

The glass is half empty, but it’s actually more than half full. Somehow…

Well, those 4’s may be gone for good. But to anyone in Sacramento still in the market and haven’t decided to lock in or not yet, it’s time to ask your professional (hopefully you’re working with a real pro that knows how to read the MBS market) for some guidance. All my clients in position to lock did so last week, and they are all happy about it! Some people are finally realizing what they hear on the news might not be as it sounds in the real world. They are also coming back to reality to realize that rates are still historically very low.

On another note my last post to Rosevilleloanexpert.com has received a lot of attention. I had no idea so many people were readng this blog! In less than 24 hours the post about the new credit card legislation had 5 trackbacks from credit-related websites around the country!

~Greg :: The Roseville Loan Expert

Who will take advantage of it? I know a lot of people that kept waiting and waiting for the mythical 4.5% creature to emerge but lost out on anything are thanking their lucky starts these rates are back. They passed on 4.75% and got nothing and are all calling in to lock at 5.25% now! They were too greedy then, but are smartly being just greedy enough to take advantage of what is available today…

~Greg :: Roseville Home Loan Expert

On a more personal note, my son’s last day of school is today. Let me just say he is more excited about it than I am but I’m pretty exicted about it too!

~Greg :: The Roseville Loan Expert

~Greg :: The Roseville Home and Loan Expert