From the Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Rates on 30-year mortgages dipped this week after rising a week earlier and remain just above record lows.
Mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac said Thursday that average rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4.82% this week, down from an average of 4.87% last week. Rates have been below 5% for five consecutive weeks.
The all-time low of 4.78% was recorded the week of April 2. (Freddie’s records go back to 1971)
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide fee averaged 0.6 point last week for all mortgages in Freddie Mac’s survey except for one-year adjustable mortgages, which had an average fee of 0.7 point.
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We’re still waiting on the “super-conforming” loans to be offered. Though they’ve been advertised on Fannie and Freddie’s website since February, none of the local lenders are offering it yet.
By May 1st, we should start seeing lenders offering loans up to $697,500 at rates that are roughly 1/8% to 1/4% over the conforming rates, which puts them around 5.0% if rates stay where they are today, with a cost of 1.0 to 1.5 points (1% to 1.5% of loan amount).
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W.C. asked about jumbos.
Surveying the websites of major lenders, and speaking with local mortgage originators found that 30-year fixed-rate jumbos up to $1,500,000 are readily available.
There were multiple lenders offering rates of 5.75% and 5.875%, and charging 1.125 points.
They are requiring at least a 25% down payment, and your full-doc loan application needs to be “golden”.
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Coming Monday…Shadow Inventory Counts By Zip Code.
Hey Jim,
Any chance of getting 91941, 92071, and 92101 with your “Coming Monday…Shadow Inventory Counts By Zip Code.” A little far afield, but would make me wonder where I should point my attention in the coming 12 months.
We’ll include 91941 & 92071, but downtown SD is a mess:
617 active listings on MLS
136 pending listings
173 closed this year
333 foreclosure notices
Add in VP and other new buildings, and there has to be 2,000 and maybe 3,000 units that are either on the open market, or coming soon.
Last year there were 692 sold.
If many or most turn into rentals, there will be severe pressure on rents too.
We reecently closed on a 5/5 non-conforming jumbo ($1M) ARM starting at 4.75% on a second home with Pentagon Federal Credit Union (anyone can join). They required 25% down for up to $2M loan, with no points and no processing fees (e.g., appraisal, credit report, docs, etc).
“5/5” means it can adjust once every five years (up to 2% either direction with a lifetime cap less than 10%). Pretty good rate for at least ten years for a zero point – zero fee jumbo.
We applied back in mid-January, and I don’t know if they are still offering the same “no points no fees” deal, or if the starting rate is still 4.75%, but check their web site if you are shopping for jumbo up to $2M (and you can handle mediocre customer service during the process).
Setser:
The Fed is buying Agencies, but almost no other central bank is. Treasuries are the only US asset foreign investors still want, despite their low yields.
http://blogs.cfr.org/setser/2009/04/17/reserve-managers-keep-buying-treasuries/
Smithers wrote:
“5/5? means it can adjust once every five years (up to 2% either direction with a lifetime cap less than 10%). Pretty good rate for at least ten years for a zero point – zero fee jumbo.
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Just out of curiosity, why did you not go with a 30-yr fixed when rates are this low? Did you have to qualify at the 10% rate, or did they just qualify at the beginning rate?
CA Renter,
We plan to have the loan for maybe 5 years, certainly less than 10 years, and the 30 yr fixed rate was nearly a percent higher and required a point-plus-fees (about $13K total). Comparison of 30 yr fixed versus the 5/5 arm, taking into account the respective difference in closing costs, and the break even point was more than 10 years, assuming maximum upward rate adjustment on the 5/5 ARM.
I don’t know what PenFed did in terms of our qualifying for the loan, but to be fair we would have qualified at 10%. Good question, though. I don’t know what the credit score requirement was, either.
I would have to recommend that you stay far, far away from Pentagon Federal. We were with them for 10 years, with two mortgages, and we went to get a jumbo a couple of months ago, with 30% down, five years of reserves, and great ratios. They turned us down over one late payment that showed up on a credit report from several years ago. We still don’t know why it was there and we contested it, but it didn’t matter to them. And it took them three weeks to make that decision.
We got a great 30-year fixed through Navy Federal instead with much better customer service.
Hibiscus,
I would agree that their customer service was poor throughout the process, almost purposefully so. But, the bottom line was that they had by far the best deal on a $1M mortage for our particular requirements and timing.
Low cost, Low rate, Lousy service. As Meatloaf said, “two out of three, ain’t bad”.