Vermilion Realty Blog

August 27, 2010

Rates Down, Applications Up

Filed under: Financing — Tags: — Don Grafues @ 7:03 am
 
Mortgage applications rose last week driven by refinancing. The overall gain over the prior week was 4.9 percent with 1 percent gain from purchase applications and 5.7 percent gain in refinance.

Rates on adjustable rate mortgages remained flat this week while 15 year and 30 year fixed rate mortgages fell. 15 year fixed rate mortgages fell to 3.86 percent.

Rates can be found at www.freddiemac.com.

Resource: REALTOR®Mag & FreddieMac.com
 

August 21, 2010

Rates Holding At Low Levels

Filed under: Rates — Tags: , — Don Grafues @ 8:10 am
 
Rates on adjustable rate mortgages remained flat this week while 15 year and 30 year fixed rate mortgages fell 0.02 points. Even with the low rates, mortgage applications fell 3.4 percent the prior week.

Rates can be found at www.freddiemac.com.

Resource: REALTOR®Mag & FreddieMac.com
 

August 19, 2010

Shorter Term Loans Save Money

Filed under: Financing — Tags: — Don Grafues @ 12:23 pm
 
REALTOR®Mag ran an article about refinancing to shorter term loans and the money that can be saved. Many older people are taking advantage of the low rates and refinancing with shorter term loans.

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August 17, 2010

Home-Equity Defaults

Filed under: Financing — Tags: — Don Grafues @ 8:50 am
 
Lenders are finding home-equity debt to be the hardest to collect. If a homeowner is out of work and the equity is gone due to falling home values, there is little incentive or desire for the borrower to repay.

In 2009, write-offs by lenders for home-equity debt exceeded losses on primary mortgages. Even if a lender takes their claim to court, they are lucky to get 10 cents on the dollar.

Resource: REALTOR®Mag
 

August 16, 2010

Closing Costs Rising

Filed under: Financing — Tags: , — Don Grafues @ 2:31 pm
 
A study by BankRate.com indicates closing costs on a national average are up 36.6 percent in 2010 when compared to 2009. Arizona ranked 15th in the nation in 2010 verses 39th in 2009. You can get national rankings here and Arizona detail here.

Resource: REALTOR®Mag & BankRate.com
 

August 13, 2010

Rates Edging Down

Filed under: Rates — Tags: , — Don Grafues @ 2:45 pm
 
Rates continue to creep downwards this past week. 30 year fixed ended the period at 4.44 percent, down from 4.49. One result of this slow but steady trend is an increase in refinancing. Unfortunately, as is pointed out in a REALTOR®Mag article, the people who would benefit the most from a refinance will probably not qualify under the tighter rules used by lenders.

Freddie Mac weekly data can be seen at “Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey”.

Resource: REALTOR®Mag & Freddie Mac
 

August 11, 2010

Loan Officers Now Licensed

Filed under: Financing — Tags: — Don Grafues @ 10:04 am
 
At the height of the lending frenzy in Arizona prior to the “crash,” there were 10,000 unlicensed loan officers handling borrower confidential financial information and arranging loans. Some of the loans were just risky while other were downright fraudulent.

In 2008 the Arizona legislature passed a law requiring all loan officers to be licensed along with fingerprinting and background checks. The law went into effect July 1 of this year.

So far over 4300 applications were submitted for licensing with a little over 2400 approved. Approximately 1000 applications are on hold pending more information or further checking.

Hopefully the licensing process will weed out unscrupulous loan officers and make those who commit fraud easier to identify and catch.

There is a lot more to the law than simply licensing. You can read the entire Arizona Republic article by clicking here.

Resource: The Arizona Republic
 

August 10, 2010

New FHA Fee Structure

Filed under: Financing, HUD — Tags: — Don Grafues @ 3:48 pm
 
Wednesday of last week the Senate approved changes to the FHA fee structure. Today, HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Vicki Bott issued a statement outlining the fee structure change and timing.

Historically, FHA has been the only US Government Agency to generate revenue.

Resource: REALTOR®Mag & HUD
 

August 5, 2010

Mortgage Applications Increase Slightly

Filed under: Financing, Rates — Tags: — Don Grafues @ 5:30 pm
 
Government backed loans, especially FHA, drove a 1.5 percent increase in loan applications last week.

Rates continue to be low contributing to the increase.

Freddie Mac weekly data of mortgage rates are at “Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey”.

Resource: REALTOR®Mag & Freddie Mac
 

July 31, 2010

Rates Drop Slightly

Filed under: Financing, Rates — Tags: , — Don Grafues @ 11:06 am
 
Rates fell slightly flat last week. For example, 30 year fixed fell 0.02 point to 4.54 percent while 15 year fixed fell 0.03 point to 4.00 percent.

Freddie Mac weekly data can be seen at “Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey”.

Resource: REALTOR®Mag & Freddie Mac
 
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