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Refinancings Soar as Mortgage Rates Remain Low

RISMEDIA, September 3, 2010—(MCT)—For anyone under the age of 57, mortgage rates are now the lowest they’ve been during your life. This fact isn’t lost on a growing number of homeowners who have started a new wave of refinancings.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported this month that refinancing applications are up 26% during the past four weeks and account for about 82% of all mortgage applications. Not since May 2009 has the volume of refinancing applications been higher.

“We are extremely busy, and it feels good,” said Charles DiPino, Jr., a senior vice president at New Penn Financial, a mortgage banker in Columbia, Md. “The phones are ringing off the hook.”

The calls started coming during the past month or so as rates continued to drop week after week. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac last week reported the average 30-year fixed-rate loan dropped to an average of 4.36%, a rate not seen since March 1953. (Harry S. Truman was president then, and the Academy Awards was shown on TV for the first time.)

Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage hit a record low of 3.86% last week; while a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 3.52%, more than a percentage point lower than a year ago, according to Freddie Mac.

“Rates continue to hit new lows because of the weak U.S. economic recovery and the concern that it could fizzle altogether,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with Bankrate.com.

But McBride and others advise against waiting to refinance in hopes that rates will fall further. If they do keep falling, that means the economy is getting even more anemic.

“You can win the battle and lose the war,” McBride said. “You might lose your job and not qualify for the lower rate.”

Refinancing to a lower rate, of course, can reduce your monthly payment. But some homeowners are refinancing to shorten the term of their loan, particularly baby boomers who don’t want this debt hanging over them in retirement, McBride said. And some want to trade in the uncertainty of an adjustable-rate mortgage for the dependability of a fixed-rate loan, he says.

Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac’s deputy chief economist, said despite the uptick in refinancing applications, the numbers still aren’t as high as they should be, given the record-low rates.

Homeowners could be having difficulty qualifying, Cutts said. It could be their creditworthiness has deteriorated. Or their income dropped because of a loss of overtime or they were forced to take a new job that pays less, she says.

So who can qualify for these great rates?

“We’re still in a very tight credit market,” DiPino said. Homeowners with credit scores of 660 or 680 can qualify for refinancing, but the best rates are reserved for those with scores above 700, he says.

Also, generally if you don’t have a certain amount of equity in your home—20% for the very best rates—you might have to pony up more cash to get a new loan, McBride said. Homeowners’ equity has fallen along with a drop in home prices or because they took money out of their house the last time they refinanced, he says.

Some homeowners, though, won’t need that much equity in their homes to get super-low rates if they qualify for a streamlined refinancing program for loans owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, said DiPino, the mortgage banker. The program, which requires passing a credit check, is designed for those seeking a lower monthly payment, he says. In other words, you can’t refinance to tap the equity in your home.

Of course, there are other factors to consider, such as how long you’ll remain in the house before determining whether refinancing is for you. But with rates these low, it’s worth taking a look.

Should you refinance?
Mortgage rates hitting the lowest levels in decades have caused a rush of refinancing. Check out calculators at Bankrate.com to see if refinancing is worthwhile. The refinance calculator can tell you how much you’ll save and how long you must live in the house to recoup refinancing costs. The FICO score estimator will give you an idea of your credit score. To qualify for the best terms, you’ll need a score in the 700s.

(c) 2010, The Baltimore Sun.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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Exceeding Expectations, Pending Home Sales Rise 5.2%

RISMEDIA, September 3, 2010—Following a sharp drop in the months immediately after the expiration of the home buyer tax credit, pending home sales have modestly risen, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator, rose 5.2% to 79.4 based on contracts signed in July from a downwardly revised 75.5 in June, but remains 19.1% below July 2009 when it was 98.1. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, cautioned that there would be a long recovery process. “Home sales will remain soft in the months ahead, but improved affordability conditions should help with a recovery,” he said. “But the recovery looks to be a long process. Home buyers over the past year got a great deal, and buyers for the balance of this year have an edge over sellers. For those who bought at or near the peak several years ago, particularly in markets experiencing big bubbles, it may take over a decade to fully recover lost equity.”

Yun added, “Affordability could reach a generational high in the second half of this year because of rock-bottom mortgage interest rates, helped partly by the Fed’s very accommodative monetary policy. The loan underwriting standards are tighter, but home buyers can improve their chances of getting a loan by staying well within their budget.”

The PHSI in the Northeast rose 6.3% to 62.5 in July but is 21.1% below a year ago. In the Midwest the index increased 4.1% to 66.7 but remains 25.7% below July 2009. Pending home sales in the South rose 1.2% to an index of 86.3, but are 15.6% lower than a year ago. In the West the index jumped 11.6% to 95.0 but is 17.6% below July 2009.

The national index had fallen 29.9% in May and another 2.8% in June.

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