Bank of America Promotes No-Fee Mortgage
Is it no fee, or no cost? Apparently, Bank of America is burying much of the cost to interest rates. Clever move BofA!
"Looking to boost market share when loan demand has slowed, Bank of America Corp. has rolled out a no-fee mortgage aimed at home buyers. Under the program, Bank of America won't charge borrowers for loan applications, title insurance, appraisals and flood certifications or require them to get private mortgage insurance. Typically, borrowers who don't put 20% down must get mortgage insurance or take out a "piggyback" loan, which combines a mortgage with a home-equity loan. Borrowers must still pay some costs, including property insurance, property taxes, recording taxes and other "services voluntarily chosen by the customer," such as home inspections. The no-fee mortgage program is the latest effort by Bank of America to use what the bank calls "disruptive strategies" to gain market share in ..." Full StoryFreddie Mac: Housing Worst Isn't Here Yet
I would be too naive to think the cumulative effect of many years' of reckless lending has already been unwound. How will this affect the economy in the next few years when the Class of 2006 faces graduation?
"The sharp decline of the subprime housing market offering high-cost mortgages hasn’t yet hit bottom, the head of home mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Friday. The number of home buyers starting such loans peaked last year, and interest rates for those buyers are due to rise in the next few years, which could cause foreclosures to spike further, Richard F. Syron said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I don’t think it’s troughed yet, because of the class of 2006,” Syron, chairman and chief executive of Freddie Mac, said before speaking at a housing conference. “The mortgages written in 2006 in the subprime market are probably the most troublesome. They haven’t hit the reset point yet on interest rates.”" Full StoryReview: Credit Demystified
If you need a healthy dose of quality credit education, look no further than CreditDemystified.com. This credit education web site, backed by Countrywide Home Loans (Countrywide is one of the largest mortgage product provider in the nation), includes the following sections: 1) How to Improve One's Credit: Information regarding credit repair, credit counseling, and whether one should consider bankruptcy. 2) Credit Learning Center: Introduction to different types of loan products, and especially, how mortgage loan process works. 3) A 10-question Credit Intelligent Quotient test that only takes 5 minutes to complete (and I got a perfect 10!) 4) Introduction to Credit Scores: Explains credit bureaus, credit reports and FICO scores. 5) Introduction to Home Loans: What is fixed rate mortgage, what is adjustable rate mortgage ... Full Story
Review: Credit Demystified
If you need a healthy dose of quality credit education, look no further than CreditDemystified.com. This credit education web site, backed by Countrywide Home Loans (Countrywide is one of the largest mortgage product provider in the nation), includes the following sections: 1) How to Improve One's Credit: Information regarding credit repair, credit counseling, and whether one should consider bankruptcy. 2) Credit Learning Center: Introduction to different types of loan products, and especially, how mortgage loan process works. 3) A 10-question Credit Intelligent Quotient test that only takes 5 minutes to complete (and I got a perfect 10!) 4) Introduction to Credit Scores: Explains credit bureaus, credit reports and FICO scores. 5) Introduction to Home Loans: What is fixed rate mortgage, what is adjustable rate mortgage ... Full Story
Review: Credit Demystified
If you need a healthy dose of quality credit education, look no further than CreditDemystified.com. This credit education web site, backed by Countrywide Home Loans (Countrywide is one of the largest mortgage product provider in the nation), includes the following sections: 1) How to Improve One's Credit: Information regarding credit repair, credit counseling, and whether one should consider bankruptcy. 2) Credit Learning Center: Introduction to different types of loan products, and especially, how mortgage loan process works. 3) A 10-question Credit Intelligent Quotient test that only takes 5 minutes to complete (and I got a perfect 10!) 4) Introduction to Credit Scores: Explains credit bureaus, credit reports and FICO scores. 5) Introduction to Home Loans: What is fixed rate mortgage, what is adjustable rate mortgage ... Full Story
Review: Credit Demystified
If you need a healthy dose of quality credit education, look no further than CreditDemystified.com. This credit education web site, backed by Countrywide Home Loans (Countrywide is one of the largest mortgage product provider in the nation), includes the following sections: 1) How to Improve One's Credit: Information regarding credit repair, credit counseling, and whether one should consider bankruptcy. 2) Credit Learning Center: Introduction to different types of loan products, and especially, how mortgage loan process works. 3) A 10-question Credit Intelligent Quotient test that only takes 5 minutes to complete (and I got a perfect 10!) 4) Introduction to Credit Scores: Explains credit bureaus, credit reports and FICO scores. 5) Introduction to Home Loans: What is fixed rate mortgage, what is adjustable rate mortgage ... Full Story
An Imperfect Mortgage Calculator
Mortgagecalculatorplus.com is a web site with only one purpose: an online mortgage calculator. Unfortunately, it didn't do its job too well. Like other mortgage calculators, this one asks for your loan amount, interest rate and term (number of years). It also goes one step further by asking you to estimate your property tax and PMI (private mortgage insurance) ratio. As a result, the calculator will show you the monthly payment you can expect, the total value of payments, total interest to be paid throughout the life of the mortgage, and the full amortization schedule. As part of the output, there are a few nicely drawn charts showing you the relative percentage of principal, interest, tax and PMI in your payment, and your mortgage balance over ... Full Story
Some Nice Loan Calculators
When it comes to personal finance, there is usually no one-size-fit-all decision. Options need to be carefully examined, usually in a quantitative way, to determine whether a particular decision is a nice fit to one's specific financial situation. To this end, I found the dozens of online calculator at iloancalculator.com particularly useful. These calculators cover some very typical scenarios when you need to get some hard numbers to back your choices. Here are a glance of some useful calculators: 1) Accelerated Mortgage Payoff Calculator: find out how you can pay off a mortgage early, and how much paying off early will save. 2) Bi-weekly Mortgage Calculator: find out how much faster you could pay off a mortgage by dividing your monthly payments into two, paying ... Full Story
Mortgage Defaults Are Climbing For Alt-A Customers
Woo ... it looks like the housing market slowdown and default nightmare for mortgage underwriters will be worse before getting better. If these Alt-A customers are turning in 2.4% delinquency rate, there is no wonder why my person-to-person lending experience at Prosper.com is abysmal.
"At issue are mortgages made to people who fall in the gray area between "prime" (borrowers considered the best credit risks) and "subprime" (borrowers considered the greatest credit risks). A record $400 billion of these midlevel loans -- which are known in the industry as "Alt-A" mortgages -- were originated last year, up from $85 billion in 2003, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade publication. Alt-A loans accounted for roughly 16% of mortgage originations last year and subprime loans an additional 24%. The catch-all Alt-A category includes many of the innovative products that helped fuel the housing boom, such as mortgages that carry little, if any, documentation of income or assets, and so-called option adjustable-rate mortgages, which give borrowers multiple payment choices but can ..." Full StoryBad Credit? You Can Still Get A Home Equity Loan
When you choose to apply for a loan with bad credit your options are very limited. If you happen to find a lender willing to approve your loan, you’ll have to pay higher interest rates. Bad Credit Personal Loans are prohibitive due to the fact that lenders don’t have any asset securing the loan so the rate is calculated based on your personal credit. Lower credit scores get higher interest rates among with other costs. When your credit report is pulled, if there are too much stains on it, a lending institution will assume you’re a high risk customer and act accordingly either denying you the loan or charging exorbitant interests to compensate the risk. Offering a co-signer can sometimes solve this problem. The co-signer’s ... Full Story
Getting $250 for NOT Banking with Bank of America
This sounds like an easy way to get some petty cash for your downpayment. As far as I know, Bank of America has never been competitve in mortgage rates. I have to admit this is a risky move for BofA.
"That is the latest marketing twist from Bank of America Corp. With competition for home loans increasing, the Charlotte, N.C., lender is encouraging its customers to apply for a mortgage with the bank and then shop around. If they decide to get their home loan elsewhere, Bank of America will write a $250 check to cover a portion of their closing costs. The Bank of America offering is the latest sign some lenders are beginning to emphasize price, service and stronger customer relationships in the face of slowing loan volume. Mortgage originations fell 29% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, as the housing market cooled and rising interest rates made it less attractive for ..." Full StoryHome Prices Keep Sliding
Wall Street Journal summarizes the current status of the housing market. It appears that things can get worse before they get better. Seattle's housing market remains strong, which makes it hard to assess whether my decision in late 2005 to sell my house is wise marketing timing or not.
"The National Association of Realtors yesterday reported the biggest drop in home prices since the trade group began compiling price data in 1968. Specifically, the association said the median price for home sales completed in September was $220,000, down 2.2% from a year earlier. That matched a revised 2.2% decline in August. In addition to being the largest price drops in at least 38 years, the back-to-back declines are the first time median home prices have fallen since 1995. Other data gathered by The Wall Street Journal show large inventories of unsold homes and declining price trends in most major metropolitan areas. ... Despite the recent drop-off, house prices remain far above the levels of five years ago, and they continue to rise in some ..." Full StoryHow PMI Premiums Are Decided
Perhaps the best advice for PMI is to avoid one, either through savings toward a larger downpayment, or using piggyback loans to bypass PMI.
"• Size of the down payment. Your PMI premium will be higher if you put down 5 percent, versus putting down 15 percent (this is also known as the "loan to value ratio"). • Potential for property appreciation. Your premium might be higher if you live in a city with declining property values. PMI companies monitor real estate prices and the economic trends that affect them as they set PMI rates. • Type of loan. The rate can vary depending on whether you are getting an adjustable- or fixed-rate mortgage or an interest-only loan. The riskier the loan, the higher the PMI. • Interest rate. A higher interest rate can, and usually does, mean a higher PMI rate because borrowers with poorer credit scores are ..." Full StoryMajor Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) Options
Bankrate's Amy Buttell Crane explains that there are three options when you cannot pay 20% of home price as downpayment. Obviously, piggyback loan is usually a better (read: cheaper) option than the other two.
"• Borrower-paid PMI. The traditional type of PMI. The loan premium is added to the mortgage payment and the mortgage company transmits the PMI payment to the insuring company. • Lender-paid PMI. The payments are wrapped into the overall loan rate so you don't make a separate PMI payment. Instead, you pay a higher interest rate and the lender pays a portion of your overall payment to the insuring company. The advantage of this type of PMI is that you can deduct the mortgage interest from your taxes. PMI isn't deductible. • Piggyback loan: Named because a second mortgage is "piggybacked" onto the original mortgage loan, a piggyback mortgage is a second mortgage that closes simultaneously with the first. There are variations, but a popular ..." Full StoryRed Flags Of Mortgage Fraud
Taking a mortgage is probably the largest financial transaction you have in your life, and you should pay extra attention to these potential red flags:
"Remember, scammers are usually real estate insiders, so recognizing a scheme may be harder than you think. But there are some red flags you should look for. Here's one of them: Your broker insists you use a specific lender. The bottom line here is that a broker shouldn't care what lender you choose. That's your right. Another red flag: Lenders who encourage you to borrow more than you can afford. You should have a clear handle on what your financial comfort zone is. You should also sound the alarm if you are not given copies of loan documents you sign. This is generally a routine practice. And finally - don't be rushed. A loan officer shouldn't rush you through the process. Don't feel pressure to ..." Full StoryYour Can Deduct Costs Of Refinancing!
Do you know on top of a low interest rate, you can also get some tax benefits by properly deducting cost associated with a refinanced mortgage? Here comes IRS Tax Tip 2006-55.
"Taxpayers who refinanced their homes may be eligible to deduct some costs associated with their loans. The term "points" is used to describe certain charges paid to obtain a home mortgage. Here are some things to remember when deducting points: • Generally, for taxpayers who itemize, the “points” paid to obtain a home mortgage may be deductible as mortgage interest • Depending on circumstances, points can be fully deductible in the year paid • Points paid solely to refinance a home mortgage usually must be deducted over the life of the loan For a refinanced mortgage, the interest deduction for points is determined by dividing the points paid by the number of payments to be made over the life of the loan. This information is ..." Full StoryARM Holder Beware: The Mortgage Time-Bomb Is Ticking
Although things will turn bad before they turn good, if you just sign up for 3-year or 5-year adjustable rate mortgage, you may want to wait out the storm. After all, the interest rate may have peaked, and in 3 years time it will be a much better time to refinance.
"The jump in payments could be even bigger for some people. They could have a loan balance that's larger today than it was when they got their mortgage - a situation called negative amortization. And it's common with what are called "payment option" ARMs. That's because the initial teaser rate is a "payment rate," not an interest rate. That means the market-rate interest on the loan starts to accrue from the get-go and monthly payments aren't enough to cover it, let alone pay down any of your principal. There may also be a trigger ceiling, meaning when the balance reaches a certain level - say 120 percent of the original balance - the introductory terms will end and the rate will reset upward, according to ..." Full StoryA Brief Introduction To UK Secured Loans
Secured loans in the UK enable homeowners to borrow money against the value of their property. For homeowners, secured loans are the best loan option to look for their financial needs. There are many benefits of availing secured form of loans, which makes it economical for the borrowers. Secured loans are secured against the property or house of homeowners. This means, borrower has to offer his house or other property to lender as collateral against the loan amount he is taking. This loan keeps lender at no risk, and they, therefore, provide loan at easy terms and conditions. Borrowers property, although, is at risk, if they fail to pay back the loan on time, and according to terms and conditions. But, this one disadvantage is ... Full Story
40-Year Mortgage!!!
Just as the California housing marketing is tanking, smart guys are inventing the 40-year fixed-rate mortgage. Yes, you can always extend the length of the mortgage to make an expensive house affordable to a few more folks.
"Some buyers in high-cost housing markets in the Northeast or on the West Coast have turned to 40-year fixed-rate mortgages in the pursuit of homeownership. Haven't heard of a 40-year fixed mortgage? You may soon. Fannie Mae is engaged in a pilot program with select credit unions that could eventually make the product more widely available if Fannie considers adding this product to its portfolio. The primary advantage of a 40-year fixed-rate mortgage is making monthly payments more affordable without taking on the risk of an adjustable rate. In addition to buyers in high-cost areas, the 40-year fixed mortgage also appeals to buyers with small down payments. Reducing the monthly payments on large loan amounts is accomplished by stretching the repayment term by an extra ..." Full StoryHow To Get A Mortgage With Bad Credit
If you are a homebuyer with a poor credit rating you may be concerned how your credit score will impact your loan. Homebuyers with poor credit qualify for higher interest rates and pay higher fees; however, if you spend some time cleaning up your credit and research mortgage lenders you can still qualify for a competitive mortgage loan. Here are several tips to help you clean up your finances and find the best deal for your mortgage. There are many options for homebuyers with poor credit that simply did not exist ten years ago. The Internet is an excellent tool for locating and comparing mortgage offers. Online mortgage lenders, particularly those that specialize in bad credit lending, are often more flexible in their lending than ... Full Story
30-Year Interest Only Fixed Rate Mortgage
Woo ... what an innovation. It is not without merits. After all, who will on earth stay in the same house for 30 years and keep paying the mortgage? Sooner or later, the homeowner will either move or refinance, so if a mortgage company can make this 30-year interest-free balloon offering attractive enough, enough people will try it.
"Basics 30 year fixed loans are the standard loan that has been available for many years. A recent innovation has been to add an interest-only payment period to part of the loan. Until recently the maximum interest only period was ten years. A new loan has been introduced that allows a borrower to make an interest only payment for 30 years. A thirty year fixed loan with an interest only payment can be used for: - purchases - refinances Purchases Getting a 30 year fixed loan is a decision many first time home buyers make. A 30 year fixed loan has the advantage of an interest rate that remains unchanged for all thirty years of the loan. This allows the borrower to have stability in ..." Full Story35-Year Mortgage In California
Yes, well said, "lenders and government agencies will do whatever it takes to spur the housing market." And now the marketing is crashing.
"A new 35-year mortgage will cost you tens of thousands of dollars more in interest than a conventional 30-year mortgage over the life of the loans, but the special loan is packed with enough attractive provisions to offset that drawback. Beginning with nothing down, five years of interest-only payments and a low fixed interest rate of 5.25 percent (as of this printing) that doesn't change for the life of the loan, the mortgage could be a Godsend for those who otherwise couldn't qualify for a mortgage, want a larger home, or seek a better home-buying location where homes cost more. "It's continuing evidence that lenders and government agencies will do whatever it takes to spur the housing market and allow more people to become home ..." Full StorySponsors
Contact us to get your web site listed here for as little as $10/month.