Hooooo Eeeeeeee!  If I sound all charged up, it is because I am.  I just got the new Rates for the week from Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA), and the 30 Year Fixed Rate has dropped to 5.25% until next Thursday.  That is right, it isn’t a typo, it dropped to 5.25%, and it is a 30 Year Fixed Loan.  CHFA, is the premier mortgage loan in Connecticut for first time homebuyers. It is only available to buyers who have not owned a home in the last three years (with a couple of exceptions).  It is FHA Insured and only requires a 3% Downpayment.  However, CHFA lets the borrower keep $5,000 of their own money before they make them apply their own funds toward the Downpayment and Closing Costs. If the borrower does not have the necessary funds to make the 3% Downpayment and Closing Cos... 11/02/2006

I am sure that there are lots and lots of blogs out there about ".Com Lenders", so if no one reads this one it is OK, but I just wanted to share a recent experience I had with a Borrower. I got a call from one of the Realtors that I call on, and she wanted me to call one of her family members, because she was concerned about how they were going about getting pre-qualified for a loan. It seems that these young family members had decided to try to purchase a house and had not talked to her first about it. They had the right idea about getting pre-qualified and seeing what they could afford, but unfortunately they watch a little too much TV. Like most young couples they still have a lot of lessons to learn in life. One of them is, talk to your elders before you make major decisions in you... 10/14/2006

Point are generally looked upon by Borrowers as a bad thing. One of the first things I hear from a Borrower is I want the lowest 30 year fixed loan with no points. I can understand that because can be a negative, for example points are charged on some loans if the LTV is to high, if the credit scores are to low, or if the Borrower is not going to escrow tax or insurance.  Points are also a negative if the Borrower only intends on owning the property for a short period of time. But if the Borrower is going to own the property for an extended period of time, points can also be use in a very positive way. For example 2 points could buy about .750% off the rate. Over 30 years that can be a huge savings, or a Borrower that is having a hard time coming up with a downpayment or closing costs ... 10/09/2006

Both Loans with PMI and 80/20 Loans have a place in the Mortgage industry.  The problem comes when Loan Officers try to fit the buyer into the wrong program.  This happens a lot more often when Loan Officers are trying to fit a Borrower into an 80/20 more for their gain then the Borrowers. Example, if the Borrower has 10 or 15 percent to put down, putting them into an 80/10/10 or 80/5/15 is doing them a dis-service. The reason for this is that at 10 or 15 percent down, the PMI factor is very low .52 & .32.  Right off the bat this is generally lower than them paying 8% to 9% on the second loan along with the closing costs.  Second, even if the payments are about the same (which they won't be), the Borrower can get rid of the PMI payment a lot quicker at a lot less cost then the second lo... 10/04/2006