WHAT A DIFFERENCE INTEREST RATES MAKE

WHAT A DIFFERENCE INTEREST RATES MAKE

 

Impact of Rates on Payment

It is important to consider not only the price of thehome but also the cost of financing. The higher themortgage interest rate, the less house you can afford. The lower the interest rate, the more house you can afford.  The chart below shows what happens to your mortgage payment at various interest rates. REMEMBER THERE ARE STILL TAXES AND HOA PAYMENTS TO CONSIDER.

 

 

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Marcotte Real Estate Group
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5 Tips For Getting a Mortgage in Today’s Housing Market

5 Tips For Getting a Mortgage in Today’s Housing Market

You want to beat the rising cost of homes and increasing interest rates by buying a home soon — but are you going to be able to get a mortgage?

The latest Case-Shiller housing data shows prices have gone up a little over 12% in just a year, and the National Association of Realtors’ latest numbers are even more optimistic, showing a nearly 14% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, the rate for a 30-year mortgage has shot up by more than a percentage point in the past three months and is now hovering a bit over 4.5%.

The “but” here is that getting a mortgage, though easier than it was a couple of years ago, is still a challenge for many Americans. Data from the Ellie Mae Origination Insight Report shows that in July, the average mortgage applicant approved for a conventional loan had a FICO score of 759. Meanwhile, even the ones who applied and were rejected had FICO scores averaging 726. This is actually an improvement over last year, when borrowers had an average FICO score of 763. But the days of waltzing into a bank with a 640 FICO score and getting pre-approved on the spot are over.

(MORE: Housing Report: Tight Inventory, Still-Rising Prices)

Improve your credit score. ”Credit is getting a bit looser recently, but even people with high credit scores are being denied loans,” says Jed Kolko, economist atreal estate site Trulia.com, an observation that’s borne out by that Ellie Mae data. Order your credit report from annualcreditreport.com so you know what you’re dealing with, especially if you’ve never checked your credit before. Getting any mistakes corrected should be your first order of business. After that, look to lower your utilization ratio — the percentage of your available credit you’ve used at any given time. The typical rule of thumb is to keep it under 30%, but lower is better.

Don’t open any new cards. This is old advice, but it’s even more important now that lenders have such high expectations. You might think adding a new credit card would help your utilization ratio, but applying for credit shortly before or during the application process pulls down your credit score. It could be only a few points, but that could affect your rate and even whether you’ll be approved for a loan at all.

Put more money down. ”Zero-down loans are rare nowadays compared with the bubble years,” Kolko says. That said, don’t despair if you don’t have 20% of the purchase price saved up.

Pay down your debt. “Because home prices are rising faster than incomes, and also because mortgage rates are rising, the debt-to-income ratio will become a hurdle for more buyers,” Kolko warns. He says monthly payments have risen 20% in just a year thanks to the combination of rising home prices and interest rates.

Give yourself more time than you think you need. Improving your credit score and socking away a down payment takes time. Lin suggests giving yourself a six-month head start. In theory, credit report errors can be cleared up in 30 days or less, but an investigation last year found that getting even simple stuff fixed can drag on for months in some cases.

Read more: 5 Tips For Getting a Mortgage in Today’s Housing Market | TIME.com http://business.time.com/2013/08/29/5-tips-for-getting-a-mortgage-in-todays-housing-market/#ixzz2l1hRfjrK

 

 

John Marcotte

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Relax. Rates Won’t Go Up Unless Yellen Wants Them To.

Relax. Rates Won’t Go Up Unless Yellen Wants Them To.

English: Official picture of Janet Yellen from...Fed nominee Janet Yellen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Janet Yellen will be pushed to defend the Fed’s easy-money policies on Thursday when sheappears before the Senate Banking Committee for hearings on her nomination to succeed Benjamin Bernanke as chairman of the nation’s central bank.

The Fed has a dual mandate, of course: To stimulate full employment and keep inflation under control. Conservatives fear Yellen will abandon the inflation bit and focus only on employment, letting prices and interest rates riseand accelerating the transfer of wealth from savers to spenders.

If rates go up, in other words, it will only be if Yellen wants them to. And that will only happen if the economy is recovering so quickly that the Fed needs to intervene to cool down the credit markets.

A study of eight past episodes where long-term rates rose more than 150 basis points, or 1.5 percentage points, shows they nearly always come as the Fed uses its main tool of monetary policy, increasing the federal funds rate it charges banks. The fed funds rate, in turn, is closely linked to longer-term rates. In the four episodes since 1990, 10-year Treasuries never blew out to more than about 400 basis points above short-term rates, suggesting a limit to how steep the yield curve can get.

“We think that’s a natural cap,” said Greg McGreevey, chief executive of Invesco Fixed Income. The reason is basic arbitrage:  As the spread widens, banks and other investors begin to use short-term borrowed funds to buy longer-dated paper, driving up the price and down the yield.

“There’s a direct relationship between the federal funds rate and the 10-year; they can’t get completely disconnected,” McGreevey told me after the conference. “So if the Fed keeps rates near zero it would be impossible for (10-year rates) to get to 5-6%.”

Even when long-term rates rise, Invesco’s analysis shows the impact on investors is surprisingly limited: In the four episodes since 1990 there were  losses in the year after rates climb, followed by gains as market rates overshoot the Fed’s target and fall again. Investors in a broad mix of Treasuries lost between 2% and 4% in Year One after a rate increase, Invesco found, then earned between 2% and 4% in Year Two and as much as 6% in the third year.

Investment-grade bonds also rose over a longer period, showing positive returns in all four episodes in Years Two and Three and much higher returns as rates rose following the financial crisis. Courtesy of Forbes.

 

John Marcotte

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Home prices still rising

Home prices still rising

 

Recovery in the housing market continues to hold strong both nationally and locally. Help has been provided from a decline in foreclosures that weighdown on overall prices and A drop in the unemployment rate is also helping to support the housing recovery. Denver once again hit record highs for home prices.

But with mortgage rates significantly higher in recent months, the pace of price increases is slowing. Experts said the slowing of the monthly increase is not necessarily a bad thing, as it will reduce the chance of another bubble in home prices.

“It’s good to see the pace of home value appreciation moderate, allowing the market to get back into a more sustainable balance and not topple over,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist of home price tracker Zillow.com. “Home value appreciation is better when it’s boring, and we expect to see continued moderation.”

Courtesy of

 

 

John Marcotte

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Mortgage applications tumble as interest rates jump

Mortgage applications tumble as interest rates jump

Homes that are valued at over $1 million, sit along Bersano Lane in Los Gatos, California September 6, 2012. REUTERS/Norbert von der Groeben

(Reuters) – Applications for home mortgages dropped for a second week in a row last week as a spike in interest rates stymied demand for refinancing, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, tumbled 9.8 percent in the week ended May 17.

The index of refinancing applications slumped 11.7 percent, while the gauge of loan requests for home purchases, a leading indicator of home sales, fell 3 percent.

Fixed 30-year mortgage rates rose 11 basis points to average 3.78 percent.

Mortgage rates increased to their highest level since March last week, leading to the largest single week drop in refinance applications this year,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics.

Despite the decline in purchase demand, activity was still running about 10 percent above the pace at this time a year ago, Fratantoni said.

The refinance share of total mortgage activity slipped to 74 percent of applications from 76 percent the week before.

The survey covers over 75 percent of U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Leslie Adler)

 

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John Marcotte

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Mortgage Rates Mostly Flat

Mortgage Rates Mostly Flat

mortgage_rate_scale Freddie Mac recently released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing mortgage rates largely unchanged from the previous week helping to keep homebuyer affordability high, refinancing strong and should continue to aid the ongoing housing recovery.

Results showed that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.38 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending January 17, 2013, down from last week when it averaged 3.40 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.88 percent.

Additionally, the 15-year FRM this week averaged 2.66 percent with an average 0.7 point, the same as last week. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.17 percent.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.67 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, the same as last week. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.82 percent.

The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.57 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.60. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.74 percent.

Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following links for Regional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

“Mortgage rates were flat to down a little this week amid reports that inflation remains contained,” says Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac. “The overall producer price index rose 0.1 percent between November and December, below the market consensus forecast, and the consumer price index was unchanged. For the year as a whole, consumer prices rose just 1.7 percent in 2012, almost half that of 2011′s increase of 3.0 percent.”

For more information, visit www.FreddieMac.com

 

John Marcotte

www.boulderhomes4u.com

720-771-9401