IDORS » hold http://www.idors.com Insurance Directories Blog Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:05:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Fixed Rate Mortgages Hold Steady Again While Arms Nudge Down http://www.idors.com/blogging-business/fixed-rate-mortgages-hold-steady-again-while-arms-nudge-down.html http://www.idors.com/blogging-business/fixed-rate-mortgages-hold-steady-again-while-arms-nudge-down.html#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:54:12 +0000 admin http://www.idors.com/blogging-business/fixed-rate-mortgages-hold-steady-again-while-arms-nudge-down.html For the second week in a row 30 year mortgage rates held steady at 6.52. 15 year mortgages last week moved from 6.07 to 6.1. The week they returned to 6.07. So basically the fixed rates are holding steady. 5 Year Arms fell from 6.05 to 6.02 and 1 Year Arms fell from 5.22 to 5.18. So they didn’t move that much. But what is interesting is the overall trend. This week marks the 3rd week in a row that both 5 and 1 year arms have fallen. The 1 year arm has fallen from 5.49 to 5.18. This continues an overall trend of the difference between 30 Year Fixed mortgages and 1 Year growing. On May 1st 30 Year Arms were at 6.06 and 1 Year Arms were at 5.29. Mortgage rates since then have risen up to 6.52 while 1 Year arms have fallen to 5.18. The question of course is why banks are making arms (the mortgage product that is partly responsible for the high rate of foreclosures) more attractive. And I don’t have an answer on that. Below are the mortgage rates for the last few weeks.

August 14,2008
30-yr 6.52 15-yr 6.07 5-yr ARM 6.02 1-yr ARM 5.18

August 7,2008
30-yr 6.52 15-yr 6.1 5-yr ARM 6.05 1-yr ARM 5.22

July 31,2008
30-yr 6.52 15-yr 6.07 5-yr ARM 6.07 1-yr ARM 5.27

July 24,2008
30-yr 6.63 15-yr 6.18 5-yr ARM 6.16 1-yr ARM 5.49

July 17,2008
30-yr 6.26 15-yr 5.78 5-yr ARM 5.80 1-yr ARM 5.10

As always I like to translate the mortgage rates into an actual mortgage payment. So using our free mortgage calculator below are what today’s rates would translate into for a 200k mortgage. I also run the numbers based on what mortgage rates were at on May 1st.

August 14th
30-yr $1266.76
15-yr $1695.28
5-yr ARM $1201.67
1-yr ARM $1095.75

May 1st, 2008
30-yr $1206.82
15-yr $1643.73
5-yr ARM $1164.60
1-yr ARM $1085.89

On the one hand in general I am against arms. They are generally dangerous so I don’t like to recommend them. But with such a wide gap between arms and traditional mortgages they are hard to ignore. If you do get an arm I would be prepared for your mortgage to jump substantially. For the most part I would consider an arm if you had enough money in savings to pay off the property if rates jumped up dramatically over the year.

The other factor to consider when getting a mortgage is credit scores. While for the first half of 2007 all one had to do to get a mortgage was show up at a bank over the last years banks have gotten a lot tighter. Additionally, interest rates now more than ever are tied to ones credit score. So if you are planning on buying a house sometime in the near future its a good idea to figure out what your credit score is now to make sure there are no outstanding debts or problems you need to fix.

Escapeso Realty provides current information on mortgage interest rates on their site. They also provide a free mortgage calculator and a mortgage rates widget.

]]> http://www.idors.com/blogging-business/fixed-rate-mortgages-hold-steady-again-while-arms-nudge-down.html/feed 0 In Week Of Historic Changes Mortgage Interest Rates Hold Even http://www.idors.com/blogging-business/in-week-of-historic-changes-mortgage-interest-rates-hold-even.html http://www.idors.com/blogging-business/in-week-of-historic-changes-mortgage-interest-rates-hold-even.html#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:15:21 +0000 admin http://www.idors.com/blogging-business/in-week-of-historic-changes-mortgage-interest-rates-hold-even.html In a week of historic changes in the US financial markets mortgage interest rates held pretty much even across the board. With the market making the largest one day drop in decades and also one of the largest one day gains in a long time to mention nothing of the historic 700 billion dollar bailout package we would have expected something to happen with mortgage rates. Instead we saw some of the smallest changes in rates we have seen all year. So what happened? On the one hand I think the markets reacted somewhat positively to the bailout but at the same time the economic outlook has soured. Additionally, the initial positive reaction to the bailout has softened as some have started to question whether the bailout will actually work. So in summary, in a week of unprecedented changes in the mortgage industry mortgage rates didn’t move an inch. Below are rates for the main mortgage products for the last few weeks.

October 2, 2008
30-yr 6.10 15-yr 5.78 5-yr ARM 6.00 1-yr ARM 5.12

September 25, 2008
30-yr 6.09 15-yr 5.77 5-yr ARM 6.02 1-yr ARM 5.16

September 18, 2008
30-yr 5.78 15-yr 5.35 5-yr ARM 5.67 1-yr ARM 5.03

September 11, 2008
30-yr 5.93 15-yr 5.54 5-yr ARM 5.87 1-yr ARM 5.21

So let’s see what is happening with actual mortgage payments. We are going to look at mortgage payment for a 200k loan based on today’s rates, the rates from last week and the rates from a little over a month ago.

October 2nd
30-yr $1211.98
15-yr $1664.03
5-yr ARM $1199.10
1-yr ARM $1088.35

September 25th
30-yr $1210.69
15-yr $1662.96
5-yr ARM $1201.67
1-yr ARM $1093.28

July 24th
30-yr $1281.28
15-yr $1707.22
5-yr ARM $1219.75
1-yr ARM $1134.32

So obviously nothing happened in the last week. If you got a 30 year mortgage this week instead of last week you are paying $1.29 more a month. But if we look at the payments one would make on the same loan a little over a month ago we can see we would be making substantially lower payments today. For a 200k loan the payment based on rates from July 24th would be $1281.28 compared to $1211.98 based on today’s rates. That’s comes out to a savings of $69.3 a month or 5.7%. If you did get a loan a month ago it might be worthwhile to call up your mortgage broker and look into refinancing.

So what are mortgage interest rates going to do over the next month? Obviously the Fed and the US Government are doing everything in their power to lower rates. The question is will they be successful. And that is the critical question. One would have thought the prospect of a 700 billion dollar bailout would have moved the stock market up. If we remember the prospect of a Freddie Mac / Fannie Mae bailout moved brought mortgage interest rates down. But instead since the bailout has been proposed the Dow Jones has fallen over 600 points. Not an encouraging sign. So in summary the bailout could encourage confidence among banks and bring rates down but it’s not a guarantee.

Ki works as a realtor in Austin. His site provides a graph that that show historical mortgage rates. He also provides a free mortgage calculator and a mortgage interest rates.

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