From the category archives:

Mortgage

Mortgage Activity Gone Wild Due Record Low Rates – Are You Taking Advantage?

Last week, there was a 20% surge in mortgage activity driven primarily by refinancing activity from record low rates. The mortgage banker’s association said seasonally adjust refinances were up 26% while home purchase loan activity was up 10%. Something’s Working While I tend to be skeptical of reports indicating the economy is improving/growing [...]

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No Cost Refinance – A No-Lose Financial Move?

A no-cost refi is starting to make more sense to me now that I’ve read more about it, and I was especially surprised to see the number of no-cost refinance companies out there. I’ve been contemplating a refi for some time now and had initially put it off due to the exorbitant fees involved in [...]

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Even at 3.25%, Refinancing Makes NO SENSE! Here’s Why

There’s an old rule of thumb that if you can refinance at an interest rate 1% or more below your current rate, it’s a good deal. That advice is too broad and may not be true in many circumstances. It doesn’t take into account so many factors like how far into the current loan you [...]

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50 YEAR LOWS on MORTGAGE RATES – Who’s Refinancing?

Mortgage rates nationwide plunged to new lows not seen in over 50 years. Here are some key national averages from Freddie Mac, but of course, review this local rate table to see how low you can go in your area: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average is 4.15% with an average 0.7 points for the week ending [...]

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Renters Are Deluding Themselves – Here’s Why

It’s en vogue now to be “anti-homeownership” given the recent crash in home prices and all the shenanigans the mortgage companies, banks and Wall street firms pulled over the past several years. People tend to use the recency effect and confirmation bias to formulate their opinions which dictate important lifestyle and financial decisions. Before you [...]

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Pre-Paying Your Mortgage – Obsessive or Responsible?

I have a co-worker friend that is hell-bent on paying off his mortgage as quickly as possible. Paying down debt of any type and saving for the future is a noble cause, but he’s pretty much obsessed over it and I can’t help but question (as I have to him) what he’s giving up in [...]

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Woo-Hoo! Mortgage Rates Are Tanking Again 8th Week in a Row!

So, now that we’ve decided not to move, I’d been eying a refinance all along, but at the time we made our decision, rates had increased too much for it to make sense (thanks to QE2, rates actually rose following the announcement, huh?). Anyway, in the face of continuing poor economic numbers, a rising unemployment [...]

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Crowd-Sourcing Fail

I read about the latest crowdsourcing initiative to be generating some buzz. In this case, it’s a mortgage rate comparison tool which relies on reports from “the community” instead of the usual inputs that mortgage sites list. The site is called SmartHippo with the tagline “join the herd, save money“. The premise here is that [...]

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Surprise – How the Japan Earthquake is Benefiting America

Usually the law of unintended consequences goes the other way, but in this particular case, the terrible tragedy Japan is facing has resulting in an unexpected windfall to America. How? Mortgage rates plunged over the prior week through the following manner: Investor flight to safety out of stocks and into Treasuries 10 Year Treasury Yield [...]

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How Bad Would It Have to Get For You to Strategic Default?

According to data released this week (CNBC), 23 percent of US borrowers (over 11 million families), were holding “underwater” mortgages. That equates to over $750 billion of negative equity. That amount of mortgage debt is staggering. Taking a step back and contemplating the shear magnitude of this number, I was thinking about just how bad [...]

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