lynn christensen's Blog

PMI is following Fannies lead

lynn christensen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:58:33 -0700

Fannie decided they were hurting the market and reversed their position slightly- agreeing to do 5% down in a declining market. BUT, and it was a big but, the PMI companies did not get on board immediately.

There now seems to be a meeting of the minds and in somewhat limited circumstances you can now do 5% down.

FHA is still a good alternative.

fannie mae is on board

lynn christensen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:51:23 -0700

Fannie is finally reacting to the market. They have been pulling back from doing loans in markets that they determine are "declining in value" Making it very hard for particularly new homeowners to enter the market.

This succeeded in putting many new buyers into and FHA mortgage. This is not necessarily a bad thing. FHA only requires 3% down and allows the seller to pay ALL the closing costs vs 3% for Fannie/Freddie. Theri rates have been better lately that the conforming and PMI is lower due in part to the upfront MI that FHA charges and finances in the mortgage.

They are finally turning around and saying that even if the market is "declining" they will still do 5% down if this is your primary residence.

rate roller coaster

lynn christensen — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:53:29 -0800

While friends are bemoaning their losses in the investment market, I am smiling and watching the mortgage rates drop to the lowest they have been in many years.

I remember, in a former life, hiring young engineers right out of college and they were buying condos and paying 16 & 18% interest. I was agast and listened to the economists saying we would never see rates in the single digits again. I also rememeber a professor saying "never" is a long time. He was right.

And the past couple of weeks with all the FED movement have been very volatile. Many days have had with rate corrections mid day. But the rates have come down enough and stayed low that we are getting into a fairly busy refinance wave.

Still people sitting on the fence though waiting for just a little more drop. Don't wait too long :-)