Mortgage Rates Under 5%, Applications Up; Is it Time to Get a Refi?
Posted on | March 11, 2009 | 4 Comments
United States weekly mortgage applications rose 11.3% week over week according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This comes on the heels of a 12.6% drop during the prior week. Fixed rate mortgage applications rose 11.3% while adjustable rate mortgage application rose 14.4%. The average interest rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage fell below 5 to 4.96%. With this great news, is now the time to get a refi?
As most of you know, the Obama Administration is doing everything possible to get YOU a lower mortgage rate. Incentives to lenders, tax cuts for first time buyers and a maximum mortgage payment of 31% of monthly income are just some of the things that the current adminstration has done to make the housing market alluring once again. Has it worked? The answer to that question will take time. One thing is for certain; now is a great time to refinance at a MUCH lower rate.
Unless your current rate is well under 6%, now might be the chance of a lifetime to refinance. The last time mortgage rates were under 5% lenders were not willing to lend as leniently as today. With the government giving many of these lenders TARP money, they are being forced to loan money to those who were once on the cusp of getting a low rate. If you were one of those borrowers who was close to getting a low rate, but weren’t certain, you are likely to get a desired rate today.
If your credit score is over 720 and you have been responsible in your spending habits, it is likely that lenders will reward you. In a time when it seems the irresponsible get rewarded because of their financial troubles, this is a breathe of fresh air to many of you. If you are a prime borrower with very little to no debt, shop around and get the lowest rate out there. Some lenders are advertising rates as low as 4.5%. While everyone cannot get this rate, why not at least try?
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4 Responses to “Mortgage Rates Under 5%, Applications Up; Is it Time to Get a Refi?”
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March 11th, 2009 @ 6:57 pm
We’re looking into a refi. 15 year fixed at 4.65%. Niiiice.
March 11th, 2009 @ 10:27 pm
Good article.
But it goes to show that the tarp is and was a lie.
It also goes to show that now we want to loan money to anybody and that was the reason given for why we are in a depression today.
Loaning money to people on property that is assessed correctly at todays value and to people who today have income will not cause a depression. Just like it did not cause the current depression. Most foreclosures, or over 50% were assessed correctly at the time they were bought and to people who had the income at that time to service the loans.
The problem today is that the unemployment rate is going up.
The real reason behind unemployment continuing to get worse is that the banks are entrusted to loan money out that is backed by the people of the United States of America.
What that means is if the banks loan out a trillion dollars to a chinese company and that company buys all the food in America and takes it to China to feed its country and pays the bank the correct interest then all of America will starve!
Well that is what has happened accept China and India are smarter than that. They borrowed trillions and bought every manufacturing facility humanly possible including the very equipment in America factories and along with American technology moved the factories to China and India or Chinese and Indian controlled third world countries.
Now America has no production capabilities and the Obama administration wants everyone to work in construction or the energy industry. The Chinese and Indians are all laughing now because they will not repay any of the loans that they borrowed to steal all of the manufacturing from the US.
That is why citi air morgan stanley and every other financial institution including fannie and freddie are losing money!
It does not take a mathmatician to understand the fannie needing 40 billion for one quarter because of loses and yet the whole housing industry only had less than 200k forclosures accounting for a loss of less than 1 billion to just pay the total amount of all mortgages period! So how do you lose 40 billion and you do not even have every home mortgage!
It is all one big LIE!
If you are out of work or lost your home or in danger of losing your home or want to support someone who has, call and email your representative now to stop all TARP and bailout money.
Demand direct loans to homeowns in danger of foreclosure from the government. Demand that any manufacturing gets by law held in the US through domestic content laws. Demand that billions, 5 million jobs* 30k= 150 billion get spent immediately for direct hire of all americans out of work. Demand that 180 billion given to a foreign company aig and 60 billion given to a foreign bank citi be given back!
Until then the depression will worsen and nobodies job is safe and nobody in the US will go unscathed from this depression that can only worsen now.
Good luck!
A lower rate mortage is not going to save you now.
Now that manufacturing is gone, the jobs are gone, now that the jobs are gone food will be next! Inflation will follow that and the fall of the dollar right after that.
Good luck with yo
March 12th, 2009 @ 4:52 am
try to get a refi. we did from our lender-7 years not one late payment-infact early or in time-always more than requested- we were turned down new underwriting guidelines due to mortgage mess.
March 12th, 2009 @ 8:20 am
you should email this to Obama’s website, or someone who can either seriously consider it or refute it and explain things to you. You may have a point on some issues, but you are also perhaps uninformed on others. No one really knows for sure, but things are such a mess right now, there are bound to me mistakes, maybe some huge ones. The Government wants to hear from us. they only do what they know, and sometimes, they just don’t. If we don’t tell them our ideas, they do what they think is right. I trust Obama more than anyone so far, to at least be honest and as diligent as possible. I think he truly has our best interest in mind, not his own for a change.