I “attended” a webinar last night – my first. It was titled Residential Mortgages and Rates for Today’s Market and was sponsored by the Northern California Chapter of the Appraisal Institute. I enjoyed the format and the speaker was very informative. Thanks to those that organized it and to the speaker!
A few interesting points:
*Although the buzz on the street is that there are no mortgages available (or something slightly less dramatic), the actuality is that there are MANY mortgage products out there, including ARMs.
*Investment property lending guidelines had a 4 property max which has now been raised to 10 properties.
*FHA financing is available up to 95% LTV (loan to value)
*Fannie Mae Refi Plus and Freddie Mac offer up to 125% LTV (yikes!)
*Declines in demand for Mortgage Backed Securities results in an increase in Interest Rates. So, as the pricing of bonds goes down, the interest rate goes up. (This is simplified! But you get the idea.)
This last item was interesting. Obviously they couldn’t educate everybody on all the in’s and out’s of rate changes in an hour over the internet – but this one item was enlightening. We tend to think that the rates are directly changed by the Government. It seems this is less true than we think. They may manipulate the system – but they don’t SET the rate.
The moral seems to be that rates are still good, loans are available, and we already knew that prices have come down. So get out there and buy some houses, People! The Economic Recovery is in your hands!
Tags: financing, mortgage, mortgage backed securities, mortgage rates, Real Estate Appraisal, webinar
