Mortgage rate predictions are as often wrong as they are right. Yet, many mortgage shoppers believe that these forecasts give them an edge.
Unfortunately, rate expectations sometimes prevent people from picking the lowest-cost mortgage. For instance, those who believe rates can only rise could ignore shorter terms.
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A sign in a Toronto Bank of Montreal branch promoting a five-year fixed mortgage rate of 2.89 per cent Wednesday is just one indication that Canada’s Finance Minister has his work cut if he wants to stop banks from offering ultra-low rates.
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Last week I saw a restaurant review on a local blog that touted “The New York Times says . . .” and I thought, wait a minute, the Times didn’t “say” anything, somebody that works for the Times did! One person, one opinion, not the entire staff and their collective opinion, but one individual. Invoking the mighty Times just because the reviewer works for the NY Times, transfers the credibility and credentials of the institution to the individual and turns an individual opinion into a powerful endorsement.
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Want a mortgage rate lower than those advertised by lenders? Ask and you shall receive.
In a Globe and Mail survey of more than 300 mortgage holders, 82 per cent said they were able to get a rate better than the lender’s official posted number when they last negotiated their mortgages.
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If interest-only loans were issued too freely before the foreclosure crisis, their availability now is restricted to a privileged few.
A staple of the jumbo market, interest-only loans continue to be used by affluent borrowers to help them manage irregular cash flow, reap a tax benefit, or free up cash for investment elsewhere.
Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100582195
The ranks of underwater homeowners continue to shrink as home prices rise.
As of December, 10.4 million homeowners, or 21.5% of homeowners with a mortgage, owed more on their homes than they were worth.
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The feds are clamping down on no-doc loans and making income requirements more strict, but the rules ignore the ways small businesses finance.
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Even as mortgage rates begin to rise, the difference between conforming and jumbo loan rates is shrinking, and that is good news for buyers of higher-priced homes.
Conforming loans are largely financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and are valued at up to $417,000 — although they can be as high as $625,000 in some of the nation’s pricier markets.
Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100543189
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages moved closer to historic lows this week, a trend that has helped drive a rebound in home sales.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage declined to 3.51% from 3.56% last week. That’s near the 3.31% rate reached in November, the lowest on records dating to 1971.
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Banks operate under the scrutiny of government watchdogs. But when it comes to mortgages, those watchdogs don’t watch everything they could.
“Individual (bank) mortgage reps operate outside of regulatory boundaries which commonly govern licensed professionals,” says Samantha Gale, a former mortgage regulator with B.C.’s Financial Institutions Commission and chief executive officer of the Mortgage Brokers Association of British Columbia. Rules pertaining to mortgage rep competency, the suitability of mortgage recommendations and compensation disclosure are largely left to the banks themselves.
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