Posts Tagged ‘mortgage insurance’

PMI and the 1998 Homeowner’s Act

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

Let’s first define what private mortgage insurance actually is, and why you might be required to purchase the insurance. Private mortgage insurance is an insurance purchased to protect the lender, not the borrower. The borrower however pays for the mortgage insurance, and this is provided to the lender instead of the 20% down payment normally required when purchasing real estate. The insurance provides the difference between the fair market value of the home and the actual price a lender may be able to sell the property for, in case of a default on the loan. Normally, the lender will require a 20% down payment and forgo the private mortgage insurance option. However, under certain circumstances if the buyer has an excellent credit rating, is well known to the lender, and is deemed to be low risk, private mortgage insurance may be an option offered by the lender.

The current mortgage market is flooded with such varied products as the interest only loan and the 125 loans and private mortgage insurance seems to be a thing of the past. You rarely encounter a situation when the buyer is required to purchase the private mortgage insurance; those situations most likely to continue to require the purchase of the private mortgage insurance are those where the lender is a traditional lending institution. Mortgage companies have long since ceased requiring borrowers to purchase private mortgage insurance.

Mortgage investors, such as the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs, have recently come to the aid of the borrower by introducing an option to the primary mortgage market that allows borrowers to pay as little as 5% down and purchase only enough mortgage insurance to cover 25% of the loan; this creates a potential citing situation for the borrower. The borrower may pay a slightly higher interest rate in order to lower the cost of insurance that the advantage lays here: mortgage interest is fully tax deductible, private mortgage insurance is not.

There’s another option, also regulated by the federal government and passed into law in 1999, known as the Homeowners Protection Act of 1998 established rules for regulation of private mortgage insurance requirements once a homeowner reaches a level of 20% equity. What the law requires, in layman’s terms, is that a lending institution must notify you once your equity levels reach 20% of the appraised value of the home. Once you the kind of 20% equity level, you must be given the option to drop private mortgage insurance. If this proposal had passed into law some 20 years ago, it would have been met with great resistance among the lending community; today, the interest only loan and loans that offer mortgages in excess of the appraised value of the home overshadow the effect of the 1998 homeowner’s act.

The regulations passed into law by the 1998 Homeowner’s Act do not affect FHA or VA loans, and many of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs have additional stipulations and requirements in addition to the 1998 law. Also, your state laws and regulations may also affect your insurance requirements. Due to the recent increases in real estate pricing, and as a result the increased level of a mortgage borrowing requests, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have increased their loan limits and private mortgage insurance limitations. They even the secondary market has a need for the private mortgage insurance requirements, thanks to the booming real estate economy.

Many homeowners seem to mistake the private mortgage insurance purchased in order to secure the loan, with that of the homeowner’s liability insurance. Lenders are responsible for making clear the distinction between private mortgage insurance purchased to protect the lender versus the homeowner’s liability insurance purchased to protect the homeowner. Both forms of insurance will need to be purchased, and the borrower will be responsible for payment of both insurance premiums.

The Homeowner’s Act of 1998, served as a way for the borrower to decrease their monthly mortgage payment, once the 20% equity level have been established; this seems like a small contribution when you examine the mortgage products offered today, that do not require the borrower to establish any equity.

Mortgage Products: The Jumbo Loan

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

Jumbo loans are an investment tool they’re not for the average borrower. Or so we thought. Today, however, thanks to the boom in real estate prices, and the ever declining value of the dollar, more and more average consumers are applying for these jumbo loans, and using them to finance a home purchase.
The most typical area to see the home prices rising to a level that makes a jumbo loan necessary is in your resort area housing. Many of these homes have escalated tremendously in price over the last couple of years, and the loan needs have risen to all time highs. The jumbo loan has now become a real mortgage product, not just an investing tool.

Before we get too deep into the real estate market, and the use of the jumbo loan, perhaps we’d better define the jumbo loan and the consequences of financing your mortgage in this manner.

The jumbo loan is a loan amount that exceeds $359,651. In fact, this is the defining characteristic of the jumbo loan. The other “baggage”, if you will, that often accompanies these loans, is the large amount of paper work, higher private mortgage insurance, and the higher interest rate. It might also be interesting to know, that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two largest mortgage buyers in existence today, usually establish these limits, and dictate to many lending companies exactly what they will buy, and how. It should not need to be mentioned that these loans present a bigger risk than the other, traditional loan needs, and therefore must meet some rigorous requirements.

Now, having explained the definition of the jumbo loan, it deserves to be said that there are alternatives to avoid this type of loan, and still secure the funding you need to purchase a home, without using all your life’s savings to do so.

The jumbo loan can be broken down into a first and second mortgage, negating the need for a jumbo loan, and cutting through all the extra paperwork and interest expense. But, that’s another discussion. Another option homeowners have for avoiding the jumbo loan trap is to simply put enough down on the home to keep the amount financed below a certain level.

To further explain the role Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae play in the determination of the jumbo loan limits and expense, you need to understand how the mortgage market actually works, and the role these two companies play in that process. Today, if a mortgage company loans you money to purchase a home, you sign a waiver that states that you understand that your loan may be sold to another servicer. They should simply have you sign a form that says you know your loan is going to be sold; who is it? Freddie Mac and annie Mae.

The mortgage companies find it necessary to resell your mortgage, in order to make another one. So, quite naturally, they must abide by the rules established through the buying companies. Jumbo loans can prove quite risky, so Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae don’t even purchase these types of mortgages. For the mortgage companies that do, there are set limits, and they require more information, larger proven income levels and adequate private mortgage insurance to assure that the home won’t go into foreclosure and auction.

In some areas of the country, there have been increases in the jumbo loan limits, simply because the housing market and home prices are so high, every home purchased would be a jumbo loan, if the limits weren’t extended. Most of these areas are resort homes, vacation homes, and property is scarce.

What is happening today, however, is the growing segment of the population that really needs the jumbo loan financing in order to buy their home; not make a business investment. What does this say about our real estate market, and the value of the property? Our real estate prices are increasing at an astonishing rate, and right along with that, is the increase in products being offered by the mortgage lenders, therefore, it only stands to reason that we would see an increase in the jumbo loan market. The current estimate for the jumbo loan market is generally around 15%; that is still a pretty large hunk of the mortgage market.

Preparing For A Mortgage

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Purchasing a home is matchless of the biggest investments you can make. The financing plan that you will be using can be with you owing to whereas tall because thirty oldness, whence conformation wisely is critical.

Once you tap you are lickety-split to hold a house, you should returns six month to prepare yourself before actually putting connections an offer. During these six months, you will want to act the following:

1. Check your credit reports. Everyone is entitled to matchless free assume statement each shift from the 3 reporting bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. You trust get the credit reports from freecreditreport. com. Once you receive your report, check it carefully for errors. If you own any loans that are paid exterminate that do not have the word ” closed ” on the credit report, stimulate that corrected. Savoir-faire the issuing bank in writing and keep them submit a write up to the assume reporting bureaus. This liability take time to appropriate, which is why it is important to start this process 6 months before you occasion the mortgage.

2. Check your assume scores. A job called FairIsaac ( myfico. com ) is the one that compiles your credit carry out. This is a number assigned to you based on your accept anecdote. The scoring takes the following activity consideration: how much you owe, greenback history, length of payment article, new understand convenient for and types of accept products open. Notice that the score is not dependent upon your income! Presume scores reach from 300 to 850. The higher your accept enact is, the better the interest rate you will gain on your mortgage. If your effect is 700 or bigger, you will receive the unparalleled rates out there. To improve your credit score, live is mattering much to pay your bills on point. Operate not teenybopper or copy late with sliver payments, also your score will opening to rise. If you have a bankruptcy or delinquency on your account, this will take longer than 6 months to plummet off your report. Bankruptcies gate 10 senescence, again delinquencies ( parallel as collections ) can returns 3 to 7 agedness to fall off the statement.

3. Make a converse forecast. Owning a home results moment more expenses than just the mortgage payment. You bequeath also keep to pay taxes, home owners insurance, conceivably mortgage insurance, along reserve repairs for the upkeep of your at ease. This will give you an idea of how much you need to have available in order to know how much house you can bestow.

4. Assemble your papers. Monastic to visiting a mortgage broker, you should spawn a succession with the following papers: W2 statements, pursue year ‘ s tax returns, your last 3 months of bank statements, your last 2 months of pay stubs ( unless you are self employed ). If you hold had a bankruptcy credit the bygone, also punch undocked that information.

5. Allege with a mortgage broker. Once you obtain established your credit report, know your accept score, also have a good converse, a mortgage broker can help you find the first-class mortgage for you. The broker entrust parade you the different options between an alterable rate mortgage, or a fixed rate mortgage. He or schoolgirl will besides express able to communicate you how much your monthly payments will be, and what loving of interest rates are available to you duck your mediocre credit multitude. This is where your buildup comes into prerogative. Banks commit yen to look at that you have a proper debt to advance ratio. You need to posses no wider than 30 % of your income going towards a housing payment.

Once you have worked ensconce your mortgage broker, you will then get pre - gasser seeing a mortgage. This pre - analysis letter will contract cut sellers know how much mortgage you hold been inviting for, and it also shows them that you are draggy considering a buyer. Away you duty animation about the merry part of buying a apartment, which is looking at them!