Mortgage stories in the news

 

Mortgage Stories In The News

Quite a lot of things are happening in the news this week, and instead of doing one long post, we thought we’d recap a few of the stories here. Please let us know in the comments if you like this.

Mortgage Applications are Up 5%

First the number went down, and now it’s back up, per the Mortgage Bankers Association. The total number of applications filed in the United States last week rose 5% as several of the interest rates available fell to their lowest levels since January. Refinancing was up 6% last week from the previous week.

“Although total purchase application volume fell last week, there was a significant divergence between the conventional and government markets,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics.

Mr. Fratantoni went on to state that the April 1 increase in Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance premiums, government purchase applications fell by almost 14%, to their lowest level since February.

Banks Mailing Out Settlement Checks

Many banks processed foreclosures improperly on people’s homes. Federal agencies researched, and brought the hammer down on the banks which included JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and BofA to the tune of $9.3 billion in cash and reduced mortgage balances. Unfortunately, there were 4 million victims, and most will get less than $1,000 each. Many already lost their homes to the foreclosure because of the processing mistakes. The checks start mailing out this Friday and should continue over the next three weeks.

Refinancing Tips

Since we’re seeing a lot of refinancing going on right now, we thought we’d recommend this Yahoo article on how to refinance seamlessly.

1. Find a trustworthy lender.
2. Be thorough when submitting documents – and submit them all at once
3. Avoid large purchases that can affect your debt-to-income ratio
4. Don’t deposit large sums of money into your bank account
5. Don’t open any new lines of credit

Most of these may seem familiar to you as we’ve touched on them before. Number 4 may seem odd, but here’s why you don’t want to suddenly have a large balance out of nowhere. A loan officer has to document thoroughly where this income came from to assure the lenders that it wasn’t a cash advance from a credit card or another loan.
And the reason why you want to submit all of your documents at once is that the lender may require all of the documents to be around the same timeframe. So if you submitted your paystub and then two weeks later submitted your taxes, you would have to resubmit the most recent paystub.

Whether you’re buying a new place, an investment property or refinancing, talk to a reputable loan officer first. They diligently research market trends and stay on top of all the types of mortgages available to get you the best option for your situation.