Sarasota Mortgage Rates | The Mortgage Skinny

Mortgage bonds fell pushing rates higher last week. Rates were pressured by high oil prices and remarks by fed Chairman Bernanke indicating inflation may increase. Fortunately significant stock weakness the latter portion of the week helped bonds recover some of the losses seen earlier in the week.

Important dates to look for….

Today watch the Retail Sales… Why? It’s important because it measures the consumer demand. A smaller than expected increase may lead to lower mortgage rates.

Also Watch Producer Price Index… Why? It’s Important because it’s an indication of inflationary pressures at the producer level. A weakness may lead to lower mortgage rates…

High oil prices continue to weigh heavily upon the financial markets. the health of the economy remains uncertain. Storcks continue to bounce up and down but recently showed some significant weakness. Inflation friendly data this week may lead to improvements in mortgage interest rates. However, unexpected consumer price spikes may push interest rates higher in the short-term. Be cautious heading into the release. Read the rest of this entry »

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Subprime mortgages have now been credited for bankrupting well over 110 lenders and seriously damaging operations at many major mortgage firms. They’ve reportedly wiped out 5 hedge funds, tens of thousands of jobs, and have led to millions of foreclosures with millions more on the way. And, as if that weren’t enough, subprime mortgages are also blamed for massive volatility in the stock, bond, credit, futures, and real estate markets here in the US and around the globe. Some say losses in the mortgage securities market alone could reach hundreds of billions of dollars this year.

This means that, for any Americans looking to buy, sell, or refinance a home, they are confronting a very different market from the one that existed just 6-12 months ago.

How did this happen?
The recent real estate boom was fueled by a period of record home appreciation and historically l Read the rest of this entry »

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Until recently, seniors 62 years of age and older have not had the best choices when it came to getting cash from their homes. Traditional home loans only offered the option of either selling one’s house or borrowing against its equity.

With reverse mortgages coming on the scene, seniors now have some additional cash-flow alternatives. This type of loan allows mature borrowers to convert their home equity into tax-free income without leaving their current home or making mortgage payments - and they do not need an existing income to qualify. 

How a Reverse Mortgage Works… Read the rest of this entry »

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Each week it seems lenders are shedding more and more mortgage products. Many lenders have stopped offering No-Doc loans and are reducing all forms of Stated-Income loans. While it might be challenging, borrowers with credit issues need to see a loan expert. Often they have credit repair resources and other strategies to help you reach your financial goals.

I’m by no means saying that it’s not possible to find stated incomes, we have access to over 270 lenders  and many of the lenders still offer this. The only difference is the fact that the credit score requirements have gone up or the LTV’s have come down.

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The purpose of this communication is not to alarm you but to alert you to drastic and irreversible changes currently taking place in the mortgage market. If you or anyone else you know will need mortgage financing in the next 18 months, you need to read this!

Just last week, American Home Mortgage and its wholesale counterpart, American Brokers Conduit, became the latest casualties of the credit crisis. Last year, this company closed over $58 billion in home loans. Despite being, by all accounts, a well-run business, market conditions forced them to file for bankruptcy, leaving billions of dollars in loans in their pipeline unable to close. Tens of thousands of borrowers have now been left without financing as a result of companies like this going under. Clearly, with over 100 national lenders having now closed shop in the last eight months, this is no longer simply a subprime lending issue. The credit market is experiencing unprecedented turmoil. Read the rest of this entry »

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Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is a tool that consumers can use as a starting point to compare loan programs. However, it’s important to keep in mind that APR is not a perfect system, and not all lenders calculate APR in the same way. While the Federal Truth-in-Lending Act does require any mortgage broker or lender to disclose APR to the consumer, there is no rule written in stone for calculating this number that each and every lender agrees upon.

The point of calculating APR is to let the consumer know what the actual cost of their financing is in the form of a yearly rate. APR factors in certain closing costs and fees associated with the loan, and spreads this total over the life of the loan along with the actual note rate. The objective is to give the consumer a clearer picture of what their actual costs are, and this inhibits lenders from hiding fees or upfront costs behind low interest rates in their advertising. Read the rest of this entry »

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