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How To Refinance When Your Home Is Underwater

August 6, 2010 By Jimmy Sgambelluri Leave a Comment

Making Home Affordable logo

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has extended the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program by 12 months.

HARP’s new end date is June 30, 2011.  Originally known as Making Home Affordable, HARP aims to help Virginia homeowners refinance their mortgage who may otherwise be ineligible because of falling home values.

There are 4 basic HARP criteria every borrower must meet:

  1. The existing home loan must be guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
  2. Your home must be a 1- to 4-unit property
  3. You must have a perfect mortgage payment history going back 12 months. No 30-day lates allowed.
  4. Your first mortgage balance must be 125% or less of your home’s market value

If you’re not sure whether Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac back your mortgage, you can look it up.

Fannie’s website is http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup

Freddie’s is http://freddiemac.com/mymortgage

If you don’t locate your loan on either website, your mortgage is backed by a third-party and is not HARP-eligible.

For homeowners that meet HARP’s criteria, there are some underwriting details of which to be aware.

First, if your original mortgage does not require mortgage insurance, your HARP mortgage will not require it, either — regardless of your new loan-to-value.

Second, all HARP refinances require income verification. It doesn’t matter if your original mortgage was a stated income or no income verification loan. You should expect to produce 1040s and W-2s for your HARP refinance and asset statements, too.

And, lastly, second (and third) mortgages may not be “rolled in” to a new first mortgage loan balance. Junior lien holders must agree to remain in a junior lien position, regardless of combined loan-to-value.

There is a thorough HARP FAQ section on the government’s website, but it’s for general questions only. For specific Home Affordable Refinance Program information, first make sure you’re program-eligible, then pick up the phone to call your loan officer.

HARP is complex enough that you’ll want to talk with a human before taking a proper next step.

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The Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit Enters Its Home Stretch — 30 Days Left

April 1, 2010 By Jimmy Sgambelluri Leave a Comment

Federal home buyer tax creditThere’s just 30 days remaining to use the federal home buyer tax credit.

The credit ranges up to $8,000 for first-time homebuyers, and up to $6,500 for existing homeworkers who have lived in their main home for 5 of the last 8 years.

Claiming the federal tax credit is a two-step process. First, you must be under contract for a new home on or before April 30, 2010.  Then, you must close on said home on or before June 30, 2010.

There are no exceptions on the dates (except for certain members of the military).

Timeline aside, homebuyers and the subject property must also meet minimum requirements in order to be tax credit-eligible:

  • You can’t purchase the home from a parent, spouse, or child
  • You can’t purchase the home from an entity in which the seller is a majority owner
  • You can’t acquire the home by gift or inheritance
  • Each buyer in the purchase must meet eligibility requirements
  • The home sale price may not exceed $800,000
  • Buyers may not earn more than $125,000 as single-filers; $225,000 as joint-filers

The complete eligibility checklist is published on the IRS website.  Or, if you find IRS-speak too difficult, make a phone call to your accountant.  Asking a tax professional’s advice on a tax-related matter is never a time-waster.

And lastly, don’t forget that if you’re claiming to federal tax credit for home buyers, it’s a tax credit and not a deduction.  This means that a tax filer who qualifies for the full $8,000 and for whom the “normal” federal tax liability is $8,000, will owe no federal taxes in 2010 to the IRS.

If you’re an active buyer in Hampton, or anywhere else in the country , mark your calendar for April 30, 2010. It’s 30 days from now and, as the date gets closer, buyer traffic will increase. The likely result is higher home prices and more difficult negotiations.  The best time to act may be today.

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CNNMoney.com Predicts The Best And Worst Real Estate Markets For 2010

March 23, 2010 By Jimmy Sgambelluri Leave a Comment

Real estate is localCNNMoney.com recently published its 2010 forecast and projections for home prices in the country's largest metro markets. 

Listed as "Top 25" and also comprehensively by state, CNNMoney.com's home price forecasts puts Santa Rosa, California at the top of 2010's home appreciation list and Hanford, California at its bottom.

The 10 cities projected for highest home appreciation in 2010 are:

  1. Santa Rosa, CA : +6.0%
  2. Cheyenne, WY : +4.7%
  3. Kennewick, WA : +4.6%
  4. Merced, CA : +4.4%
  5. Bremerton, WA : +4.2%
  6. Fairbanks, AK : +4.2%
  7. Corvallis, OR : +4.1%
  8. Tacoma, WA : +3.9%
  9. Anchorage, AK : +3.8%
  10. Bend, OR : +3.3%

The Pacific Northwest is the region most heavily-represented among price gainers. The Southeast and Middle Atlantic are most represented on the under-perform list.

However, just because a city's homes are expected to appreciate (or depreciate) in 2010, that doesn't mean that every home within its limits will follow suit.  Real estate cannot be grouped on a city level like CNNMoney.com tries to. There will always be areas in demand within city limits in which prices rise, just as there will be out-of-demand areas in which prices fall.

Real estate data can't be grouped by city or even by ZIP code, really.

Real estate in Hampton is more local than that.

When we say "real estate is local",  it means that every street in every town has a distinct set of traits that drives its home values. Homes that are one block closer to the train; or, homes that are facing north; or, homes that are made of brick. Each of these characteristics can affect a home's desirability which, in turn, can affects its sales price.

National surveys can't capture "essence" like this. They only report on the aggregate.

For local real estate data, look to established, publicly available websites and to active, local real estate agents.  Both will have data and insight that can help you.  National surveys often make for good headlines, but do little to help homebuyers find good value.

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How You Can Get The Most Accurate, Real-Time Mortgage Rate Quotes Available

February 23, 2010 By Jimmy Sgambelluri Leave a Comment

Mortgage rates are expired before they hit the papers You can't get your mortgage rates from the newspaper. Last week proved it.  Again. Friday morning, headlines in Virginia and around the country read that mortgage rates were down 0.04 percent, on average, since the week prior. A sampling of said headlines includes:

  • US Mortgage Rates Drop For 2nd Straight Week (Reuters)
  • Mortgage Rates On 30-year US Loans Fall To 4.93% (Business Week)
  • 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Falls Farther Below 5% (Marketwatch)

The story behind the headline was sourced from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, am industry-wide mortgage rate poll of more than 100 lenders.  The PMMS has reported mortgage rate data to markets since 1971 and is the largest of its kind. Unfortunately, Hampton rate shoppers can't rely on it. See, unlike governments and private-sector firms, when consumers are in need mortgage rate information, they need the information delivered in real-time; for making decisions on-the-spot.  Consumers need to know what rates are doing right now. The Freddie Mac survey can't offer that. According to Freddie Mac, the survey's methodology is to collect mortgage rates from lenders between Monday and Wednesday and to publish that data Thursday morning.  The survey results are an average of all reported mortgage rates. The problem is that mortgage rates change all day, every day.  The PMMS results are skewed, therefore, by methodology. And, meanwhile, the issue was compounded last week because mortgage rates shot higher Wednesday afternoon — after the survey had "closed".  The market deterioration ran into Thursday, too — again, unable to be captured by Freddie Mac's PMMS. Although the newspapers reported mortgage rates down last week, they weren't.  Conforming mortgage rates were higher by at least 1/8 percent, or roughly $11 per $100,000 borrowed per month.  In some cases, rates were up by even more. Newspapers and websites can give a lot of good information, but pricing is far too fluid to rely on a reporter. When you need to know what mortgage rates are doing in real-time, make sure you're talking to a loan officer.  Otherwise, you may just be getting yesterday's news.

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7 Ways To Protect Your Credit Score For Better Mortgage Rates

February 5, 2010 By Jimmy Sgambelluri Leave a Comment

As mortgage lenders tighten approval standards   in Virginia and nationwide, the importance of a good credit score is rising.  Credit scores not only make the difference between a mortgage approval and mortgage turn-down, but they also play a large role in determining your actual mortgage note rate.

In the 3-minute piece, the NBC Today Show talks about 7 ways that homebuyers ruin their credit — often by accident.  Some of the highlighted mistakes include:

  • Closing open credit cards
  • Making appliance buys on credit prior to closing
  • Asking creditors to lower credit balances prior to closing

In general, a 740 FICO will insulate a borrower from the higher costs and/or rates associated with low credit scores.  Below 740, though, every 20 points adds to the damage.  Watch the video and apply what you can to your own situation.  The more you know, the more you can save.

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