| |
| |
|
|
Mortgage and Refinance Information |
|
Home Equity - Let the Market Eliminate Your Private Mortgage Insurance
In decades past, most people who were interested in obtaining a home loan were required to put down at least 20% of the purchase price. Those days are gone, and as home prices have risen faster than incomes, the average down payment required by lenders has dropped. In fact, it is often possible to buy a home with no down payment at all. Nationally, the average down payment is a 3%. It's nice to be able to buy a home with such a small amount of ready cash, but there is a downside - if the down payment is less than 20%, the lender requires that private mortgage insurance (PMI) be added to the house note. No one likes to pay PMI; the payment doesn't go towards paying off the house and the payments aren't tax deductible. And the PMI payments aren't trivial; the monthly PMI payment on a home priced at the U.S. median price of $206,000 with a 3% down payment is $129. Lenders require that borrowers pay PMI until the borrowed amount becomes less than 80% of the value of the home. In years past, this has meant that homeowners had to pay PMI until they had paid enough of the loan balance to reduce the debt to less than 80%. Times have changed, however, and many homeowners may be eligible for a faster way to avoid the monthly PMI payments. The exploding real estate market has driven home prices higher than ever. Not only are the prices high, but the rate at which they are increasing is astonishing. In some parts of the country, home prices have doubled or even tripled in the last five years alone. The savvy homeowner should keep an eye on the price of housing in their local market, as the equity in his or her home may rise above 20% through market appreciation alone. In most markets, this is often happening quickly enough that homeowners may be able to eliminate PMI less than two years after purchase, even if they put a minimum amount of money down on the home. A home appraisal is required to establish the equity to debt ratio of the loan, and this typically costs several hundred dollars. As that figure represents only a few months' PMI payments, most everyone would be glad to pay for an appraisal. Before doing so, contact your lender, as some lenders require PMI for a specific length of time before it can be dropped. No one likes to pay for private mortgage insurance, and thanks to an unusually aggressive real estate market, few homebuyers today should have to pay it for very long. ©Copyright 2005 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a Website devoted to debt consolidation and credit counseling information and HomeEquityHelp.net, a site devoted to information on mortgages and home equity loans.
MORE RESOURCES:
Mortgage-Refinance - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
A New Choice for Home Financing: Correspondent Lenders When you begin your search for a new home loan, one of the first things to consider is where you'll get the money. Your basic choices will be mortgage brokers and banks. Finding the Best Home Improvement Loans When the time comes to do work around the house, finding good deals on home improvement loans can be vitally important.Home improvement loans can be used to help you improve any part of your house or other real estate, providing you with the money to get the materials that you need and to hire the professionals that can get the job done. Home Loan Refinancing - What Lenders Dont Want You To Know Refinancing lenders seems to hold all the cards. They have the money and their own system for determining which type of credit you can qualify for. Residential Mortgage - Finding The Best Home Mortgage Lender Most people approach the act of getting a home mortgage purchase or refinance loan the wrong way. They timidly approach lenders and cross their fingers that they will quality for that all-important loan. Which is Better? Fixed-Rate or Adjustable-Rate Mortgages The answer depends on several factors including your financial situation. Lets take a look at the main differences between the two types of mortgages. Home Loans and Mortgages - Beware of New "Mortgage Elimination" Scam The booming real estate market has allowed many Americans to become "equity rich." They may not have a lot of cash on hand, but they might have equity in their homes worth several hundred thousand dollars or more. Mortgages After Bankruptcy: Easier Than You Would Expect Give yourself time to rebound. Whether you had to turn to bankruptcy because of a divorce, a medical emergency, a job loss, or a problem spending habit, give yourself a little time for the air to clear before house hunting. Composite Credit Report Score Simplifies Mortgage Issues Do you want a mortgage loan for your new home? Trying to qualify for a new mortgage can be very tough, especially if you aren't aware of the effect your credit report score has on your ability to get approved for loans. One of the first things a lender looks at to determine your suitability for a mortgage loan is your credit report, or FICO score. FHA Mortgage: When Your Downpayment is a Gift There has been so much fraud discovered in the FHA program allowing gift funds for downpayment that Lenders and borrowers are required to absolutely document every step of the gift transaction to prove it was legitimate.Here's how it works: FHA allows the required downpayment to be a gift from someone who would logically be concerned about housing for the borrower. Choosing The Right Buy-To-Let Mortgage Buy-to-let took off during the 1990s with the increasing availability of specialist mortgages tailored towards the sector.For most people investing in buy-to-let schemes, mortgages are a vital component for funding the investment. Reverse Mortgages - A Tax Free Income For Senior Citizens I fully realize if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is and There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL) immediately jumped into your head when you read the title of this article. However, if you are 62 or over, you may have just found the goose that laid the golden egg. Buy to Let Mortgages Finding the right buy to let mortgage is crucial to your success as a property investor. Unlike other forms of property investment, a lot of the capital you invest into a buy to let investment property is likely to be borrowed. Council Right To Buy Mortgage - Transform Your Accommodation Into Home Homeowner - does this term catch your attention every time you hear it? It is a powerful term. It is hard being a tenant for long. Repayment Remortgages is The Cure For Outdated Endowment Policy If bulls and the bears of the stock market have no effect on your mortgage plan then you must apply for endowment to repayment remortgage. An endowment mortgage is a financial product offered mainly in the UK. What Are Mortgage Brokers And Why To Use One "Mortgage" is formed from two words: the French word "mort" meaning "dead" and the word "gage" from Old English meaning "pledge". Sir Edward Coke (who lived from 1552 to 1634) explained the term: the land as considered "dead" to the mortgagor, as if the person never had it. The Best Tactics for Getting a Quick Homeowner Loan Trying to find a quick homeowner loan can seem difficult at times, especially considering the days or even weeks that it can take for some banks and other lenders to approve or deny a loan.The worst part is that if you're denied your loan, then you have to start over at another bank and go through the same wait again!Luckily, there are other options available that speed up the process of getting a quick homeowner loan? you just have to know where to look for them. Alternative Options For Rising Interest Rates As interest rates have risen in the last six weeks from record lows, homeowners are once again face with finding viable options to reduce the amount of interest paid on their home loans. The rush to refinance provided borrowers with good to excellent credit the opportunity to take advantage of low interest rates, that helped to reduce their monthly mortgage payments, which was the only benefit provided by the lowered rates. Mortgage Debt Elimination in 5 to 7 years! Mortgage Debt Elimination shows that most home loan debts will be secured. Secured debts usually are tied to an asset, like your house for a mortgage. A Guide to Getting Bad Credit Home Improvement Loans You might be wanting to look into bad credit home improvement loans but are unsure of where to start. After all, how do you get a good loan when your credit isn't the greatest?What you probably don't realize is that there are a number of lenders who offer bad credit home improvement loans, which use the equity of your home or other real estate to determine the amount of the loan with no additional collateral needed. Some of the Available Loan Types There are many mortgage products available on the market today. We can help you find out which one is right for you.
|
|||||||||||||||
