Home Loan WholesaleDirectory Listings of Top Lenders & Loan Brokers Online
Free Loan QuoteHome Loan Rates, New Home Loans, Mortgage Lender NewsBlogroll
FHA Loan Limits by State
Government LendersHome Lending ResourcesLender DirectoryMarketing ResourcesMortgage Rates by StateMortgage Rates OnlineReal Estate ResourcesPagesMetaRecent Posts
Categories
|
 |
|
Lenders reported a see-saw for nterest rates this week. Time will tell if rates will stay high. Today was the other scenario, where MBS prices moved frighteningly downward for most of the session, effectively bringing lender mortgage rate quotes to their highest levels of the week, only to stage a moderately sized and exceedingly stable recovery back to the middle of the week’s range here in the final hour of trading. Multiple mortgage lender re-prices continue to be reported. The best 30 year fixed FHA mortgage rates are in the 4.125% to 4.50% range for qualified loan applicants. The best 15 year fixed mortgage rates remain in 3.500% to 3.875% range.
Loan originators will only be able to offer these rates on agency conforming loan amounts to borrowers who are have a middle FICO score over 740 and enough equity in their home to qualify for a refinance or a large enough savings to cover their down payment and closing costs. If the terms of your loan trigger any risk-based loan level pricing adjustments, your loan quote will be higher. If you do not fall into the “perfect borrower” category, make sure you ask your loan originator for an explanation of the characteristics that make your loan more expensive. A no point home loan does not mean a no cost mortgage. The 30 year fixed mortgage rates still include closing costs such as: third party fees + title charges + transfer and recordation + escrows.
Fannie Mae continues to run into financial hardships as the home loan market remains unsteady. The Government-controlled mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae is asking for $2.5 billion in additional federal aid after posting a narrower third-quarter loss. It’s no secret that the U.S. taxpayers are concerned that the mortgage relief is getting out of control. Whether its defaulting home mortgage refinancing or failed loan modifications, the taxpayers in this country are getting a bill significantly larger than they asked for.
Fannie Mae also said Friday it is likely that the recent foreclosure chaos will have a negative impact on the delinquency rates of its home loans, its expenses and foreclosure timelines. Fannie Mae said Friday it lost $3.46 billion, or 61 cents a share, in the July-September quarter. That takes into account $2.1 billion in dividend payments to the Treasury Department, and compares with a loss of $19.8 billion, or $3.47 a share, a year earlier.
Fox Business on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Countrywide
The government rescued District-based Fannie Mae and McLean-based sibling Freddie Mac about two years ago, estimating it will cost taxpayers up to $259 billion. That’s nearly twice the $133.4 billion Fannie and Freddie are in line to receive and would make it the most expensive bailout of the financial crisis.
Putting an end to the home foreclosure crisis should be a priority for getting the economy back on track, but not if it artifically pays for homeowners to live in homes they no longer can afford. The recent revelations that big banks, mortgage lenders and mortgage service companies have used robo-signers to expedite the foreclosure process has created quite a scandal. Some of the same people who brought us the financial crisis and then paid themselves huge bonuses as a reward are now throwing homeowners out on the street, with insufficient or bogus documentation. While it is true that many of these homeowners may have been struggling to keep their homes, but clearly they can no longer afford them.
Coming up with a new FHA mortgage program to help these homeowners hold on to a home they can’t afford for another year is not good for the economy or the mortgage industry. A Republican legislator in Virginia is pushing the state’s Republican attorney general to investigate one of the big mortgage servicers, and that’s just the beginning.
Although most would agree that a full-fledged foreclosure moratorium is a bad idea, Congress might be able to pass a set of standards that protected individuals’ property rights and due process in foreclosures, backed up with stiff penalties. Who but the banking lobby could oppose that? Meanwhile, the Obama administration should quietly put an end to its well-intentioned mortgage relief program, a miserable failure. This article was originally published in Market Watch by WSJ.
