Mortgage Rates

[JaneDoe]

Have dropped like a rock! In our area, Wells Fargo is advertising its 30 year rate to be 4.875%. We are in the process of refinancing right now. If we close we could see more than 1.5% drop in our interest rate, saving us around $300 a month on our mortgage payment. The only contingency is the appraisal. It might not be pretty. :run:

Re: Mortgage Rates

Wow, I wonder if this applies to jumbo mortgages as well. That sounds great! How are real estate values holding up there?

[HouseofWool]

Re: Mortgage Rates

My sister is doing a re-fi and is going from a 30 year fixed to a 15 year fixed and the monthly payment is actually going down!

[JaneDoe]

Re: Mortgage Rates

Wow, I wonder if this applies to jumbo mortgages as well. That sounds great! How are real estate values holding up there?

I guess, relatively speaking, Salem's home prices have not fallen like they have in other areas such as California or Nevada. However, we are in a new construction development so I think home prices in our neighborhood have dopped more than established neighborhoods in our area.

I really am nervous about the appraisal. The mortgage consultant we have been working with doesn't seem concerned, but she's trying to make a sale.

[Vishenka69]

Re: Mortgage Rates

We just locked in our rate a week and a half ago. I called our mortgage broker today to see if we can lower it, he said he'll try. We locked in a pretty good rate but the lower the better, right?

[JaneDoe]

Re: Mortgage Rates

We just locked in our rate a week and a half ago. I called our mortgage broker today to see if we can lower it, he said he'll try. We locked in a pretty good rate but the lower the better, right?

Absolutely! We locked our rate in last Friday at 5.125% and the rates have gone down even more. We ticked off our mortgage consultant by showing her a good faith estimate with a better rate and closing costs from another lender and asking if she could beat it. She wants to compete, but I guess it costs money everytime we break a lock. We have already broken one lock with her and she is agreeing to pay for the appraisal.

We are being high-maintenance clients!

Re: Mortgage Rates

Thanks for the heads up! I need to check into this....we have a 30-year jumbo at 5.65% (I think). I wonder if we could go lower....

I never thought of negotiating the cost of the appraisal.

Re: Mortgage Rates

I checked on the jumbo rates with Wells Fargo and it was 8 point something (you can check on their website). I'm guessing I won't find anything lower than the 6.5% that we have right now. I talked to a Wells Fargo person too -- he said a possibility would be to re-fi with a conforming rate loan and do the balance of our mortgage as a home equity loan. The home equity loans are tied to the prime rate and are variable. I'm not sure of any tax implications for home equity interest versus the first mortgage. I think we could pay off the second pretty quickly if we put the payment savings towards extra principal.

[Vishenka69]

Re: Mortgage Rates

We needed jumbo too but were able to take regular and a home equity loan. Wells Fargo wouldn't do the split for us but a local bank didn't have a problem. We're currently locked in at 5.25%.

Re: Mortgage Rates

I think I'm going to look into it more. There wasn't much of a difference between the conforming and non when we took out the mortgage.