At first, it seemed that jumbo mortgage rates just hadn’t adjusted yet. But now a month later, jumbo rates are still better than conforming rates.
Here are today’s rates taken from their websites (BofA just has a phone number now):
| Bank | ||||
| Chase | ||||
| Wells Fargo |
If this continues, maybe we can end the Fannie/Freddie support sooner than we thought!
An excerpt from the Boston Globe:
‘‘Lately, our jumbos are either in line with conforming [regular mortgages] or better,’’ said Karen Mayfield, at BNP Paribas’s San Francisco-based Bank of the West unit. ‘‘Slowly but surely, the gap has closed in the past six months, and it’s really become much more obvious in the market over the past 30 days.’’
Jumbo mortgages are loans larger than those allowed in government-supported programs, currently as much as $729,750 for single-family properties in high-cost areas. For Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans with the lowest costs for borrowers using 20 percent down payments, the limits range from $417,000 to $625,500.
Bigger loans are getting relatively cheaper because they’re mostly put on banks’ balance sheets instead of packaged into securities that are sold to investors, said Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets.
Banks are seeking those loans because ‘‘there’s just not enough economic growth out there to create the other lending opportunities needed to support all the capital at these banks,’’ he said.
Mike and Kelly Guarascio, who are buying a four-bedroom house in Stratham, N.H., for $570,000, locked in a 4.25 percent rate with Wells Fargo on a 30-year fixed mortgage that was about an eighth of a percentage point cheaper than Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.
They initially considered using a larger down payment to get below the jumbo limit because they thought it might save them money. That changed when the Federal Reserve signaled last month that it’s moving closer to reducing measures to stimulate the economy, which sent bond prices lower, causing the biggest losses in government-backed mortgage securities since 1994.
Our Chase rep:
Chris Bourus
(619) 618-8993
Chris.bourus@chase.com
Are there any points on these rates? A few months ago lenders were asking no fees for loan origination etc, are we still doing it?
Not much, judging by the APRs. I think Chase was half-point on their conforming.
JUST closed on 3.5% for ~$580k.
Points? .125
Citibank
Had a two year old 4.5% loan and just refi’ed the remaining balance on mortgage plus ~$4k for closing costs/points and lowered my monthly by nearly $400.
Not … too … shabby.
Anybody selling anything to anybody should take a lesson here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/red-sox-principal-owner-john-henry-enters-into-agreement-to-buy-the-boston-globe/2013/08/03/29d19458-fc05-11e2-89f7-8599e3f77a67_story.html
The Times bought the Globe from the family of former Globe executive Stephen Taylor in 1993 for what it said was the highest price paid for an American newspaper. The price Henry is paying is less than 7 percent of the 1993 price.