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So I know how much we love discussing credit cards and investing so I thought perhaps I could ask what is the best mortgage rate out there is right now? Is Lending Tree the best way to compare rates or is there something better?
Thanks!
Bankrate.com is the best place I have found to view current rates. If you "buy down" your rate by paying points you can deduct the cost of points from your taxes.
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I do not recommend paying points also. You need to calculate the break even points and see if you will keep the loan that long. However, I don't see the benefit of paying points right now since mortgage rate is still fairly low to pay 1% purchase fee and get minimal discount (something like 0.125%) on your mortgage interest.
A lot of people like 15 years fixed if they can afford it. However, I like 30 years fixed even when I know I can afford 15 yrs fixed. It gives me more cash flow to invest in stocks (higher returning assets 6-8%) instead of locking in 3.125% return for the next 30 years (~2% return after accounting mortgage interest deduction). Home price is going up or down irrespective of the money you put on it. Whether you pay it off slowly or faster, you will still get the appreciation return. If you like the idea of not carrying mortgage for a long time, pick 15 years. If you are like me, and can be disciplined enough to invest money saved into stocks, do 30 years fixed. The math most of the time favors debt leverage.
What I see right now the lowest you can get 3.5% 30 years fixed, or 2.75% 15 years fixed. No fee. I get this from Zillow Mortgage. This is where I got my loan last time for the lowest APR and fee. If you don't like dealing with out of states bank (I personally don't care when I got mine), you can take the offer from them to your local bank (they are 99% of the time always higher) and see if they can match it.
I do not recommend paying points also. You need to calculate the break even points and see if you will keep the loan that long. However, I don't see the benefit of paying points right now since mortgage rate is still fairly low to pay 1% purchase fee and get minimal discount (something like 0.125%) on your mortgage interest.
A lot of people like 15 years fixed if they can afford it. However, I like 30 years fixed even when I know I can afford 15 yrs fixed. It gives me more cash flow to invest in stocks (higher returning assets 6-8%) instead of locking in 3.125% return for the next 30 years (~2% return after accounting mortgage interest deduction). Home price is going up or down irrespective of the money you put on it. Whether you pay it off slowly or faster, you will still get the appreciation return. If you like the idea of not carrying mortgage for a long time, pick 15 years. If you are like me, and can be disciplined enough to invest money saved into stocks, do 30 years fixed. The math most of the time favors debt leverage.
What I see right now the lowest you can get 3.5% 30 years fixed, or 2.75% 15 years fixed. No fee. I get this from Zillow Mortgage. This is where I got my loan last time for the lowest APR and fee. If you don't like dealing with out of states bank (I personally don't care when I got mine), you can take the offer from them to your local bank (they are 99% of the time always higher) and see if they can match it.
You forget we live in unprecedented times when 0.75% rise in interest rate is considered HUGE. I am not sure if you follow historical mortgage interest rate over the past 50 years. Hindsight is always 20/20. Let's say the life time cap is 5%. It's possible 1%/yr increases and anyone doing ARM will be stuck with high interest up to 7.5%/yr looking to refinance for a lower rate that I wouldn't never get to see again. If the rate kept on going down on 30 yrs fixed, I'd just refinance. If it went up with ARM, I'd be SOL. Just like you, I was locked into a rate that I was comfortable with at the time of applying a loan, never mind a short term 5 years cash flow when I know what I'll be locked into the next 25 years, and still have money left to invest into higher expected return assets.Why would you not get a 5/1 arm then? As I see it, there is fairly little chance a person in today's world will have the same loan for 30 years, why are you paying a 0.75% premium for the off chance that interest rates will go up > 0.75 in 5 years AND you will still have the same loan? Note that 5/1 ARMs are amortized over 30 years so cashflow is better vs a 30 year fixed due to reduced rate. This is why I generally only recommend 15 year fixed or 5/1 arm, I personally chose the 15 year fixed because it was the same rate as the ARM at the time but knowing I am locked into a rate gives me more confidence to invest in riskier assets.
I will not submit bank statement when I submit offers, especially when you have more money than you need . It removes some part of your negotiation leverage when they can see how much money you have in the bank. Pre-approval letters is fine.
You forget we live in unprecedented times when 0.75% rise in interest rate is considered HUGE. I am not sure if you follow historical mortgage interest rate over the past 50 years. Hindsight is always 20/20. Let's say the life time cap is 5%. It's possible 1%/yr increases and anyone doing ARM will be stuck with high interest up to 7.5%/yr looking to refinance for a lower rate that I wouldn't never get to see again. If the rate kept on going down on 30 yrs fixed, I'd just refinance. If it went up with ARM, I'd be SOL. Just like you, I was locked into a rate that I was comfortable with at the time of applying a loan, never mind a short term 5 years cash flow when I know what I'll be locked into the next 25 years, and still have money left to invest into higher expected return assets.
very good discussion here. I am working with Drb bank to get a mortgage loan. i already have my student loans refinanced with them. The lowest rates i have been quoted for the past few weeks is 3.625 % fixed for 30 years.
It makes me laugh when some people treat houses like a car. Let's not forget guys, a house is a LONG-TERM asset that heavily depends on various market conditions. Sure people flip houses when the markets are good and have enough cash cushion to ride out the bad times, but for an average Joe like us, it is better to take a conservative approach and lock in the low fixed rates, rather than playing with the ARM game.
Momus is absolutely correct that you will not see a period of low mortgage rate for a long time. Going forward, interest rate is only gong to go up not down. ARM is attractive if you have enough money to put down and you know for fact that you will get rid of the house (aka flipped house or income property.) If are you are going to put your primary house on ARM with not enough money down... you are risking a lot more.
Some things I wish I knew before:
1. Title Insurance
I know some states do it differently, but in Florida you have to get title insurance and there are actually rates specified in the Statutes. It's about $1,500 for a $250k mortgage. What I didn't know when I bought my house was that you can shop around because some title insurers charge less than the specified rate. I used entitledirect.com when I refinanced and saved about $400.
2. Closing costs
These can add up to a lot so keep them in mind throughout the home buying process. For example, you may think you have a 20% downpayment saved of $50k, so you can afford a $250k house. But you have to pay closing costs and the lender needs you to have a few months of expenses in reserve on top of that, so you really need $65k+ in the bank.
If you go below 20% down, then you will need an escrow account, so be aware that you will have to pay the first year of home insurance plus 2 months into the escrow, and 2 months of property taxes. These could easily add up to an additional $2,000 which you'll have to bring to the closing table.
very informative here. Did you get an estimate of the closing costs ? you could have asked your loan officer and they would have given you an estimate. Here in Florida for a home that costs above 350 k, the closings costs would be about 11 to 12 k with 10 percent down per my loan officer. That includes 5 to 6 months of taxes and a year of home owner insurance.Some things I wish I knew before:
1. Title Insurance
I know some states do it differently, but in Florida you have to get title insurance and there are actually rates specified in the Statutes. It's about $1,500 for a $250k mortgage. What I didn't know when I bought my house was that you can shop around because some title insurers charge less than the specified rate. I used entitledirect.com when I refinanced and saved about $400.
2. Closing costs
These can add up to a lot so keep them in mind throughout the home buying process. For example, you may think you have a 20% downpayment saved of $50k, so you can afford a $250k house. But you have to pay closing costs and the lender needs you to have a few months of expenses in reserve on top of that, so you really need $65k+ in the bank.
If you go below 20% down, then you will need an escrow account, so be aware that you will have to pay the first year of home insurance plus 2 months into the escrow, and 2 months of property taxes. These could easily add up to an additional $2,000 which you'll have to bring to the closing table.
Yeah, everyone gets a GFE/Loan Estimate of closing costs when you apply for a mortgage. My point is, don't rely too much on it or what your loan officer says because some items can change substantially depending on when exactly you close. Instead, understand how these items are calculated, and make sure you have enough cash to close.very informative here. Did you get an estimate of the closing costs ? you could have asked your loan officer and they would have given you an estimate. Here in Florida for a home that costs above 350 k, the closings costs would be about 11 to 12 k with 10 percent down per my loan officer. That includes 5 to 6 months of taxes and a year of home owner insurance.
People have been saying that rates can't go lower and will only go up for the last 20 years. Many people think back on the mortgage crisis and worry that having an ARM will cause them to loose their homes. Please look at the following chart that details mortgage rates for the last 40 years.
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortgage_rates/charts.asp
As stated previously, the average home loan is held for a period of 3-7 years (depends on the source) but this is nothing close to a 30 year term, but see how close it is to the fixed portion of a 5/1 ARM? Many people believe that they are ahead if the rates go higher than their fixed rate as soon as an ARM would have been set to expire, but let's explore this. Let's take a 250,000 mortgage and compare a 5/1 ARM at 2.75% and a 30 year fixed at 3.5%. After a period of 5 years, the 5/1 arm would have paid a total of 32,982 in interest and the 30 year fixed paid a total of 42,253, which gives the ARM a savings of 9,271 over 5 years. Now lets assume the rate adjusts to 5% on the ARM (about the highest it as been in the last 10 years and almost double what it is today), the current principle balance is approx 223,000 for each loan, so the fixed pays 7741 interest in year 6 and the ARM pays 11,351, a difference of 3,610. Extrapolating this out, if the ARM adjusts to 5% right at year 6 and stays there, the breakeven point for the two loans comes in right about year 8. It really sounds to me like you are paying an awfully high premium to insure against the rate almost doubling AND you keeping the loan for more than 8 years.
By the way, the mortgage crisis was not caused by the 5/1 ARM as it exists today. Banks offered teaser rates for the first year that were below market value, thus the type of loan that really caused the crisis was basically a 1/1 ARM that was guaranteed to go up by at least 2% at the beginning of year 2, yet banks calculated a person's ability to repay based on the teaser rate offered only in the first year. For many people, they saw their interest rate triple, and this caused their payment to double making them no longer able to afford the loan.
Anyone familiar with eclick lending? They are offering the best rate and fewest fees. In fact the offer sounds too good to be true and it is scaring me, lol. Anyone have any experience or know anything about them?
Initial quote of 3% fixed 15 year for condo. No points or fees other than title fees.What rate were you offered? What is the fee? Expect interest rate to be even lower today.
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Initial quote of 3% fixed 15 year for condo. No points or fees other than title fees.
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20% downWhat % down and are they requiring PMI for less than 20%?
That's a little above the par rate of around 2.875%, so they are charging a higher interest rate to make up for no points and no feesInitial quote of 3% fixed 15 year for condo. No points or fees other than title fees.
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You may well be right but it's the same rate I was offered by Wells Fargo and their fees and points were ridiculous. It's also the same rate I was quoted by Quicken Loans but I never got to the point of finding out they are fees or points.That's a little above the par rate of around 2.875%, so they are charging a higher interest rate to make up for no points and no fees
You may well be right but it's the same rate I was offered by Wells Fargo and their fees and points were ridiculous. It's also the same rate I was quoted by Quicken Loans but I never got to the point of finding out they are fees or points.
I was told the rates for condos are a little higher and that I would have got 2.85 for a single-family home.
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I got 2.75% today 15 yr fixed condo using my usual zillow mortgage, no fee $1. So, for me that's a no go for your lender.
Loan origination fee $1,490
Appraisal fee $500
Lender credit ($1,989)
Total Estimated Fees $1
I used one of random mortgage company out of CA in the past, I got what was quoted on Zillow website 3.125% 30 yr fixed in 2013. No BS.Thanks, I was mostly worried that I was being naive thinking I could get a loan that good without points or fees. Wells Fargo agent made it sound like I was for certain getting lied to or being scammed. I figured he was just blowing smoke/using scare tactics but I figured you or someone here would let me know the truth. Thanks!