Smart Borrower Blog

Archive for the ‘Home Equity Loans’ Category

Avoiding Jumbo Mortgage Rates

There has been a lot of press lately about the large point spread between interest rates on conforming mortgages and non-conforming, or “jumbo” loans. In particular, this has impacted borrowers who need regular thirty year fixed rates for loans above $417,000 which is the cut off for conforming mortgages. At one point, some lenders were asking 8% on these loans for borrowers with good credit and 20% down. Right now, jumbo rates are in the low to mid 7’s, nearly a full point higher than a conforming 30 year fixed rate mortgage. Say you wanted to purchase a property for... more »

Avoiding Subprime Mortgages

The Federal Reserve has been making attempts to inject liquidity into our stalled-out housing market. However that doesn’t really address an underlying problem–the subprime loans. Now that we’ve had our little scare involving subprime lending, a lot of people are wondering exactly what it is all about. A subprime lender is a lender who will loan money to borrowers who wouldn’t otherwise qualify for a housing loan. You might be surprised to learn that the subprime lenders are often branches of the ”regular” lending institutions—they just operate under a different name. Subprime lending account for $600 billion in loans last... more »

You and Your Adjustable Rate Mortgage

If you happen to be one of the millions of Americans who refinanced their homes over the past 5 years there is a good chance that you chose an adjustable rate mortgage for your home financing needs. Who could blame you? With historically low rates these short-term loans offered monthly payments that were hundreds of dollars cheaper than their fixed rate counterparts. However, with the recent shift in the mortgage market it is important that you and your adjustable rate mortgage become familiar with each other to ensure that the mortgage that saved you money doesn’t end up costing you... more »