Juicy Estates: Mortgage Blog

Jumbos Below 6%….Now That’s Juicy!

Each Wednesday, the Mortgage Bankers Association releases its Weekly Applications Survey, a detailed look at new mortgage applications submitted over the previous 7 days.

This week’s report will reveal what most of us already know — plunging mortgage rates created a new wave of mortgage activity, especially refinance applications.

In the past I have provided weekly mortgage rate updates but going forward I will be posting updates every time rates move in either direction more than .25% which is happening with great frequency.  Historically we would see one intra-day reprice about every 3 to 5 weeks.  An intra-day reprice is when the price and yield of mortgage backed securities move enough within a day that lenders have to issue new rate sheets either lowering or raising interest rates.  Since the beginning of the credit crunch in the summer of 2007 the frequency of intra-day reprices has increased dramatically and currently we see these re-prices 3 to 5 times a week!

So where are rates today? 

Currently Jumbo mortgage rates have continued to fall and today I was pleased to quote a client borrowing $1.1 million for the purchase of a home in Pinecrest, 5.75% with no points or origination fees.  We have not seen Jumbo mortgage rates that low in years.   Additioinally I locked a client on a conforming loan amount at 5.25% for a 30 year fixed rate for purchase of a beautiful Coral Gables home.

If you are buying or refinancing a home be sure to take into consideration the rate lock period needed to complete the process.   Typically a 30 day rate lock is sufficient for a refinance but for purchases you may need 45 or 60 days depending on the closing date. 

Oh and be sure to work with someone that is watching the mortgage backed securities market everyday and that can advise on on when to lock.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 10:46 pm and is filed under Home, Mortgage News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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