Homes Fort Mill SC

I meet with Liz Ciardi,  Home Mortgage Consultant with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, this past week . She past on timely information about the Home Buyer Tax Credit that expires in April. The following is a summary of the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Tax Credit information brochure:

Seize This Opportunity

Little time remains for you to take advantage of the Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit. Along with high affordability and low mortgage rates, tax incentives make now a great time for first-time and repeat buyers to purchase real estate. It also presents a good opportunity for sellers. Now is the time to make sure your home appeals to motivated buyers. (more…)

Rates are at record lows, but do you qualify for those rates?

If you haven’t heard about these record low mortgage rates in Tega Cay, you might want to check into having the internet hooked up to that rock you’ve been living under.  The news is everywhere that mortgage rates are super low, but the real question is, “Can you qualify for them?”

It really doesn’t matter how great something is if you can’t get your hands on it.  That is one of the reasons why record low rates have not magically lifted this economy back to health.  Many people haven’t been able to refinance into a better situation because they can’t qualify.  Let’s take a look at why… (more…)

It does not look like mortgage rates are going to fall much below current record lows as lenders become flooded with refinances.

The Federal Reserve has been on a mission to get long term interest rates lower in order to help spur the economy.  One of the biggest areas of focus has been mortgage rates, with a promise of $500 Billion to purchase mortgage bonds.  This promise was just raised to $1.25 Trillion for 2009 alone!

One would think that with the Fed buying $1.25 Trillion worth of mortgages this year that rates might fall even lower than the already record lows,  (more…)

Have you ever wondered what a “good” credit score looks like?

Read below to find out…

A “good” credit score is a very relative term because “good” means different things to different people.  I know mortgages, so although I have an idea of what a auto lender might think is a “good” score, I can tell you for sure what it takes to get a mortgage!

The current minimum score for most home loans is (more…)

Rates improved today after a sharp decline in stocks!

PRICING EXAMPLE:
I was able to lock in a customer today at 4.875% on a 30 year fixed mortgage.  The loan amount was $275,000 and it was a purchase loan for their primary residence.  They put 20% down and had a 746 credit score.  The APR was 5.023% and the origination fee was .875%.

The good news in this crazy market is that mortgage (more…)

The time of waiting for the “bottom” is past… now is the time to buy Real Estate!!

There has been a time for people with money to spend to sit on the sidelines and wait out the proverbial “storm” in the market.  Whether stocks or real estate the values have been in free-fall mode, and buying just didn’t make a ton of sense.  I believe that time is over and here’s why… (more…)

Can 11th Grade Economics 101 predict mortgage rate trends… you bet!

I learned in high school about Supply and Demand.  When Demand is high the price will follow, and likewise when demand is low.  When Supply is high prices drop and right now there is a huge supply of mortgages being written.  When lenders make new mortgages they have to sell more mortgage bonds and right now lenders have an abundance of new loans from January.

What does our high school economics class teach us… if there is a huge supply of these mortgage bonds that need to be sold right now then price must go down.  If mortgage bond prices fall then rates go up.  Right now rates are on the rise and even though “Demand” is gotten them low and will keep them relatively low for a while, “Supply” is pushing them a little higher at the moment. (more…)

If the economy is so bad, why did mortgage rates get higher this week?

We all know that a weak economy typically means lower mortgage rates, but it is not a direct relationship.  Mortgage rates are based on mortgage bonds and any financial instrument trades on both data AND fear.  If you were investing money into a bond that is backed by real estate and that real estate might lose value, you probably aren’t going to pay a premium for that bond. (more…)