Currently browsing August 2008 monthly archives.

FHA Eliminates Seller Funded Down Paypayment Assistance

On August 15, 2008, in Mortgage Programs & News, by Todd Abelson | View Comments

With the recent passage of the Housing Recover Act of 2008, FHA eliminated all Seller Funded Down Payment Assistance programs. Yesterday they released an additional statement further defining “when”. Here, with a bit of mortgage-speak, is detailed insight:

A Seller or other interested third party cannot participate in a down payment assistance programs on/after October 1, 2008 unless the borrower is approved by September 30, 2008.  FHA confirmed the definition of “borrower approved” as follows:

Eligibility will be determined by the following:

  1. For loans approved through the Automated Underwriting system the “date of the last scoring event” is used.   Any resubmission after 9/30/08 will cancel eligibility.
  2. For manually underwritten loans, eligibility will be determined by the date of underwriter signature. Note: Backdating not allowed.  

In addition to the above the FHA appraisal must be completed and underwriter approved by 9/30/08.

Due to this hard deadline make sure your FHA loans utilizing Seller Funded Down Payment Assistance Programs are fully approved on or before 9/30/08.

Call Tyler Ford and Todd Abelson TODAY and close your loan on time!  520-331-LEND

In Pictures : Mortgage Guidelines Get Tough For All Borrower Types — Quickly

On August 14, 2008, in Mortgage Educational Information, by Tyler Ford | View Comments

When mortgage guidelines tighten, it becomes even more important to have a real estate planIt’s not your imagination — getting approved for a home loan is becoming increasingly more difficult.

Taken from the Federal Reserve’s quarterly survey of 84 banks, it illustrates the changing dynamic of mortgage guidelines.

Most notable is the steep curve for “prime” mortgages, a type of home loan given to applicants exhibiting:

  • A well-documented credit history
  • High credit scores
  • Low debt-to-incomes

Americans have come to expect sub-prime loans to be tougher, but it’s the sharp tightening of prime guidelines shows us that nobody is exempt from the newfound underwriting prudence that banks are exhibiting right now.

If you plan to buy or remortgage a home over the next year, consider a popular expression in financial circles — the trend is your friend. 

Know that mortgage guidelines will get tougher before they get easier and applicants on the cusp of being approved today will almost certainly be denied a mortgage three months down the road.

Owning real estate and making sound financial decisions requires a tremendous amount of advance planning and, sometimes, looking at the past is the best way to prepare for what’s coming ahead. 

According to the Federal Reserve’s survey, what’s coming ahead more mortgage application scrutiny.

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www.tucsonmortgages.com

How To Make Sense Of The Pending Home Sales Index

On August 12, 2008, in Real Estate Information, by Tyler Ford | View Comments

The Pending Home Sales Index shows that buyer demand is rising and that is good for the real estate marketWhen home sellers accepts a contract on MLS-listed property, the property’s official status changes from “Active” to “Pending”.

By measuring the number of “Pending” homes nationwide, the National Association of Realtors® publishes its once-monthly Pending Homes Sales Index.

The real estate industry group positions the report as a predictor of future home sales activity, stating that 80 percent of homes under contract will “close” within 60 days, and most others will close in within 120 days.

But, although using the Pending Home Sales report as a crystal ball may be its intended use, it may not its best use. 

This is because of the index’s methodology:

  1. It doesn’t measure new construction homes
  2. It doesn’t track For Sale By Owner properties
  3. Its sample set covers just 20 percent of MLS transactions

In addition, in a tough mortgage climate such as the one we’re in now, a greater percentage of pending sales will fail to close at all because of lack of financing.

The Pending Home Sales Index still has its place, however — it’s a terrific look at the buy-side demand for homes. 

When the Pending Home Sales Index is rising, we can infer that more buyers in the market for homes and this is a signal of market strength.  After all, pending sales can’t happen unless there are buyers out there.  And with more buyers competing for homes, home prices tend to rise.

This is why the June’s Pending Home Sales report is so intriguing. 

In June — for the second time in three months — the Pending Home Sales Index posted a large gain even as economists were calling for a loss.  The inference here is that buyers are not only finding good value in all four regions of the country, but are willing to make bids on homes listed for sale.

Now, again, the uptick doesn’t mean that the pending sales will necessarily close, but it does tell us that more home buyers are finding “now” to be a good time to buy a real estate.

That sort of insight is what make the Pending Home Sales Index worth tracking.  When buyer demand is rising, the real estate market isn’t usually far behind.

www.tucsonmortgages.com

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Tucson Utility & Frequently Called Phone Numbers

On August 11, 2008, in Tyler Ford & Todd Abelson, by Tyler Ford | View Comments

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Are you moving and need the list of the all the utility companies to disconnect and reconnect your utilities?

If so CLICK HERE.

UTILITY PHONE NUMBERS FOR TUCSON, AZ

Brough to you by Tyler Ford and Todd Abelson – Courtesy of Jerri Szach of Long Realty Company.

www.tucsonmortgages.com

Looking Back And Looking Ahead : August 11, 2008

On August 11, 2008, in Market News, by Tyler Ford | View Comments

Crude oil has fallen 20 percent from its July 2008 high, helping to strengthen the dollar and lower mortgage ratesIn a week packed with mortgage news and economic data, mortgage rates swung hard in both directions last week before settling into the weekend slightly higher across the board.

Adjustable-rate mortgages worsened more than their fixed-rate counterparts and both broke a two-week streak in which mortgage rates had improved.

But, if we look at all of the big stories of last week, there was a dramatic overweight of news that is usually “good for rates”. 

Those stories included:

In the end, it turned out that the news was so good, investors decided to jump back into the stock market, propelling the Dow Jones 3.6 percent to a 6-week high.  This fevered trading action drew investor money away from the bond market — including bonds of the mortgage-backed variety — and that pressured mortgage rates higher.

And, of course, it didn’t help rates when the two biggest insurers of mortgage-backed debt posted large quarterly losses and warned of more delinquencies ahead.

Turning our attention to this week, make note that it is back-heavy on data.  Therefore, expect the positive momentum of Thursday and Friday to carry through Monday and possibly Tuesday.

Mortgage rates now move more in a hour than they used to in a dayBy Wednesday, however all bets are off — that’s when July’s Retail Sales data is released.  Furthermore, Retail Sales is backed up Thursday by the Consumer Price Index, a Cost of Living measurement. 

Both data points are correlated with inflation so higher-than-expected readings may cause mortgage rates to rise.

Regardless, given that mortgage rates are now moving more in a hour than they used to in a day, be prepared to get your mortgage rate quotes quickly and be ready to act on them. 

Just 90 minutes later, the quote could be expired.

Brought to you by Tyler Ford and Todd Abelson of www.tucsonmortgages.com

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