MORTGAGE NEWS
 

CONVENTIONAL
Mortgage Servicers Boosted by HARP Extension - Yahoo! Finance

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Extended HARP until 2015.
This allows you to refinance into market rates regardless of your home's value if you have a Fannie or Freddie backed mortgage taken out prior to June of 2009. You can check the following links to see if you qualify. Rate on a 15 year are 2.75% 30 year 3.75%. Freddie Mac is also taking unlimited debt ratios.

https://www.knowyouroptions.com/loanlookup
https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/

FHA NEWS
FHA Has increased their monthly PMI and it is now fixed to the loan for the life of the loan. Along with the 1.75% of upfront PMI that is added to the loan balance this has become a very ugly way to get into a new home with a low down payment.
The good news is that Conventional guidelines have been finally loosening up a bit and a new buyer can get into a new home with 5% down and no PMI.
FHA also has a streamline refinance that has the old PMI rates as long as the loan was insured by FHA prior to June of 2009.

If anyone thinks they might qualify for one of the refi-programs above or has any questions please feel free to shoot me a PM for
more info.

Hope this can help someone

what is the maximum percentage of the appraised value of the home can one refinance?
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so wait, if you get a FHA loan and then you pay down the balance so that your LTV is above 80%, you STILL have to pay PMI? that sucks! So they basically WANT people to refinance at that point....

Unlimited loan to value
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Yup
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FHA... bleh! Glad we waited to save up 10% for a down payment. Lower monthly mortgage, lower interest rate, no FHA and we bought out of PMI.

FHA's are nothing more than catalyst to inflated housing prices. If a family cannot afford to put at least 5% down, then they are buying too much house.

I'm porked with a jumbo.

How jumbo? What county do you live in? There are high balance HARP loans with really low rates and no appraisal needed loan amount depends on your county. I also have a jumbo lender that goes to 95ltv with no pmi with great rates.
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PMI is what kills.... PM sent

My lender was able to structure the loan so that we bought out PMI. We pay a slightly higher interest rate (3.737%, instead of the 3.625%) but buying out(through taking out the higher interest rate) the PMI saved us almost $100/month.

It's called lender paid PMI and is usually the way to go. There is PMI on the loan it was just paid by your lender. There are 2 types of LPMI lender paid mortgage insurance. Lender paid single. This is when the lender pays the pmi in a lump sum and lender paid monthly where your lender pays the pmi company on a monthly basis. It's the smart way to go. But a lot of times the customer doesn't even know that the lender did LPMI which is not good practice. The rate change can be from .125 to .5 depending on credit score and ltv.
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Actually back in the day it was a good idea. Many people could have made larger down payments but the rates were much lower than conventional and even with the pmi back then payments were lower than say putting 5 or10% down. And lots of people went FHA to keep cash on hand. Now it's a last resort loan for the most part.
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I was able to go from 6% down to 3 5/8%, kicked chase bank to the curb and now I'm with td bank, saving 386$ a month. I'll pay back my closing costs in 8 months, very happy.

Probably quicker if you consider the month you didn't have to pay and the escrow check that you got back from chase.
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Really appreciate the info. lender paid PMI was a completely foreign concept to us until my mortgage agent brought it up. We did the math and it definitely made a ton of sense for us.

Way back in the day, for a brief period of time. As you said, now it's merely a "last resort loan" for people that shouldn't be buying houses anyway. If we look at any area where there are government backed loans where the 'rules of lending' are loosened, the market cost tends to skyrocket due to sellers knowing that the prices are artificially supported. This appears to be exactly what happened leading up to the housing bubble and history is repeating itself today with college loans.

How much of a down payment do you need to qualify for something like this?

5% with a good credit score. One lender just came out with a decent program. 3% down Conventional rate. The pmi is financed into your loan balance so you don't have monthly PMI and no rate add on for having lender paid pmi.

cool thanks man!

If anyone is thinking of getting a mortgage or refinancing, give Westportmafia a call. He knows his stuff and will work hard and make sure you get the best rate available. I refi'd last year and he helped me lower my payment and shorten the length of my loan.
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Correction on the FHA PMI. The premiums went up but you have until June 3rd to do something without life of loan PMI. After June 3rd you will be stuck with PMI for the life of the loan or until you can refinance to a conventional product.