Today the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced a new program designed to help even more underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages at today’s low rates. The plan hopefully will allow homeowners to lower their monthly mortgage payments, thus freeing up money to be spent in the broader economy and help the US from slipping back into recession again.

Previous programs had been restricted to homeowners who were no more than 125% upside-down on their homes. The new FHFA program places no cap on how much the borrower owes, or how far underwater they are.  Only mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be eligible. Need to know if your mortgage is owned or managed by Fannie/Freddie? Check here and then here. Then call us for a loan officer recommendation.

Helpful links -

Does Freddie Mac own your mortgage?

Does Fannie Mae own your mortgage?

FHFA’s new program to help underwater homeowners is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Fannie and Freddie caused housing crash?
2. FHA Short Refinance program
3. Help for Homeowners

A while back, I wrote a piece called Condo Re-Financing: Tricky to Impossible. Nowadays, that lending dilemma has grown — it’s next to impossible to get a new mortgage to purchase a condo, according to my favorite lenders Kevin Reiser and Jeannie Bolger. (need an ace loan officer? call me or text me and I’ll forward their info. 602-999-8831). The exception may be luxury condos, think million dollar plus, but I’m not sure that mortgage market is healthy either.

The reason one can’t get a mortgage to buy a condo these days has almost nothing whatsoever to do with the buyer and his/her credit profile. It has to do with the condo community and it’s overall financial health/outlook. Many, many condo (and patio home and townhome) communities have experienced so many foreclosures that their Homeowners Associations are in severe financial distress. Other times, the owner-occupant to investor ratio is so out of whack – with investors owning 75% or more of the units in the community – that lenders won’t lend to anyone who wants to buy there.

If you’re really digging the idea of a condo right now…. check with several lenders first. Getting a mortgage for your new, hip pad might be tricky to impossible.

Want more in-depth explanation of the metro Phoenix condo market outlook? Try this article we wrote waaaay back in Spring 2010. http://thephoenixagents.com/newsletters/viewpoint-2010-0407/

Condo financing near-impossible to get is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Condo refinancing: tricky to impossible
2. Is That Condo FHA Approved?
3. 100% financing eliminated

Mortgage rates set new record lows this week, per a report by mortgage giant Freddie Mac (the Primary Mortgage Market Survey), hitting rates not seen since 1971.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.12 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending September 8th, 2011.

Despite the fact that it’s been 40 years since we saw mortgage interest rates this low, the Mortgage Bankers Association simultaneously reports that buyer demand for mortgages remains at record lows, close to the low demand levels last seen in 1996.

(some content above based on original reporting published on Inman.com; chart below originally published by the New York Fed)

Mortgage rates lowest since 1971 is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Mortgage Rates Headed Toward 6%
2. 30 Year Mortgage Rates Creep Back Above 6%
3. Today’s Mortgage Rates

From one of my favorite loan officers, Gary Ogami at Pinnacle Peak Lending, Inc. comes the news that mortgage interest rates just hit year-long lows:

…rates are now at the year’s lows, and are only slightly above the all-time lows we saw almost one year ago.

The passage of a debt ceiling and deficit reduction agreement, along with weaker than expected manufacturing and GDP figures, bonds have rallied as investors have sought safety.  This has lead to higher bond, and more importantly, mortgage-backed securities (MBS) prices, which have brought yields and rates lower.  The last time we approached this price level for MBS’s was late summer/early fall of last year!

Mortgage	Term	Rate	APR
30 Yr Fixed	360 months	4.250%	4.297%
15 Yr Fixed	180 months	3.625%	3.736%

 

Are you looking for a mortgage loan officer? Try Gary, I highly recommend him.

Gary Ogami
Pinnacle Peak Lending, Inc.
gary@pinnaclepeaklending.com

He’ll get your pre-qualification on the fast track and meanwhile you can start searching for homes on our MLS Search.  Contact us with any questions and when you’re ready to hire a Realtor!

Mortgage interest rates plunge on debt deal news is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. How Interest Rates Affect Your Purchasing Power
2. Mortgage Activity Falls on News of Higher Rates
3. What were mortgage rates in 1990s?

Image credit Shuttermon via StockExchange

Trulia regularly tracks the buy vs. rent equation and reports again that it’s cheaper to buy a home than to rent in metro Phoenix. See full story here: http://explore.trulia.com/datavis/rentvsbuy/Q2-2011/

Meanwhile, mortgage rates are in free-fall, according to an Inman.com interpretation of Freddie Mac’s rate survey…

Rates on fixed-rate mortgages declined for a seventh week in a row to new lows for the year … Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

It’s not the ideal time for everybody to buy a home, and mortgages are still a bit difficult to obtain. But it could be a great time for you to buy:

1. Home prices just double-dipped according to Case-Shiller numbers (they’re down over 50% from their Summer 2006 peak)
2. Sellers are frequently willing to pay the buyer’s closing costs,
3. There’s talk in Washington about increasing the minimum cash down payment of the FHA mortgage program from 3.5% to 5% sometime soon, so buying now could save you a couple thousand dollars over waiting

A few questions can help you decide if you should consider buying a home now, or not…

• Are you emotionally & financially ready to be a homeowner?
• Do you have stable employment?
• Do you plan to stay put in your home for 5 to 10 years into the future?
• Do you have a couple months’ worth of salary in savings?
• Have you planned your future budget to account for costs of home ownership like maintenance & property taxes?
• Do you consistently pay your bills on time or even early?
• Do you know what your credit score is? (studies show that people who know their score tend to have better credit ratings than people who don’t know their score)
• Have you talked with a lender to find out how much home you’ll qualify for? (In Arizona, buyers *must* submit a loan approval with a purchase offer)

If you answered yes to all or most of these questions, you’re probably a great candidate to buy a home. Contact your Realtor. Don’t have a Realtor yet? You’re in luck, we’re Realtors. Read what our clients say about us behind our backs, and then give us a shout by email, phone or even text or Facebook.

Ready to start browsing listings online? We provide you a direct link to the private, Realtors-and-appraisers-only Multiple Listing Service. That’s the most up to the second, accurate information consumers can get their hands on. Use our map based home search, or use our Detailed home search to really dial in on your housing wants and needs.

Metro Phoenix: cheaper to buy than rent is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Metro Phoenix Freeways Names
2. Metro Phoenix Utility Companies
3. Improve your credit score the easy way: Rent Better Credit

Fannie Mae purchased $87.6 billion of mortgages in December and $855 billion in 2010.

Fannie Mae accounts for 54% of the market share and Freddie Mac accounts for 26%.

Source: Rob Chrisman, via his daily mortgage news email to industry insiders, dated Feb 8, 2011.

How big ARE Fannie and Freddie? is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Fannie and Freddie caused housing crash?
2. Fannie and Freddie Not To Blame
3. More Woes for Fannie and Freddie

The minimum FICO credit score needed to qualify for a mortgage changes frequently. As of February 2011, the general answer is … buyers need a FICO credit score of about 640 to qualify for a home mortgage.

BUT…  there are exceptions. Bottom line: if you have a score under 640 you might still qualify for a mortgage, but you’ll probably need more cash on hand.

From Rob Chrisman’s daily mortgage news email…

Wells Fargo reduced its minimum FICO’s for FHA loans to below 600. Direct Mortgage Wholesale has done something similar by reducing its minimum FHA FICO to 580 ….  There are other requirements, of course, including 90% maximum LTV, no gift funds, etc.

Deleting the banker-speak, what this means in plain English is that buyers with FICO scores less than 640 probably are going to need to make a down payment of about 10% of the purchase price, and that money cannot be gifted to the buyer.

“Not gifted” doesn’t mean your money is stupid. It just means that the 10% cash down payment has to be the buyer’s own money, and sitting in their bank account for a couple of weeks before the purchase takes place.

Want to see if you qualify to buy a home? Have more questions? Give me a call or shoot me an email and I’ll connect you with one of my favorite loan officers. They’ll hook you up.

Heather Barr, Realtor
Chris & Heather, The Phoenix Agents @ Thompson’s Realty
602-999-8831 voice/text     Heather@ThePhoenixAgents.com

read what clients say about realtor heather barr

What credit score do I need to get a mortgage? is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Having Low Credit Score is Expensive
2. FHA tightens credit score minimums
3. Can I get my credit score for free?

Clients always ask me, “WHY are banks so SLOW in agreeing to short sales??”

There’s a ton of reasons; almost none of them make sense. But for about 2-3 years I’ve been adding this opinion to my list of reasons banks are slow to OK short sales.

Mind you, this is my opinion. I have nothing to back up this idea other than a rudimentary understanding of Accounting 101:

• accounts receivable = assets
• accounts payable = liabilities

I believe that one of the many reasons banks are so slow to approve short sales is that while they stall, they can book the mortgage payments as an accounts receivable item, whether the homeowner is actually making the payments or not. The second the bank OKs a short sale, they have to book a giant loss. Again, only my opinion, but it passes the common sense test with everybody I’ve mentioned it to.

Now, a story at Forbes magazine backs me up, sort of. (hat tip to Mish’s Global Economic Analysis blog for the story link)

Robert Lenzner at Forbes writes US Banks Reporting Phantom Income on $1.4 Trillion Delinquent Mortgages

[Due to loose accounting rules, banks are] allowed to accrue interest on non-performing mortgages” until the actual foreclosure takes place, which on average takes about 16 months.

All the phantom interest that is not actually collected is booked as income until the actual act of foreclosure. As a result, many bank financial statements actually look much better than they actually are. At foreclosure all the phantom income comes off the books of the banks.

This means that Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, among hundreds of other smaller institutions, can report interest due them, but not paid, on an estimated $1.4 trillion of face value mortgages on the 7 million homes that are in the process of being foreclosed.

Ultimately, these banks face a potential loss of $1 trillion on nonperforming loans, suggests Madeleine Schnapp, director of macro-economic research at Trim-Tabs, an economic consulting firm 24.5% owned by Goldman Sachs.

Astounding! The extent to which our entire financial system is built on castles in the air is staggering. Banks make money because they say they do. Our dollar bills have value because we all agree they do.

I’m gonna go sit down now. My head hurts.

Not paying your mortgage? Don’t worry, banks making money off you anyhow. is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Mortgage Accelerator – paying off early
2. Not all banks are utterly moronic
3. Are Banks ‘dumping’ property?

From one of the more entertaining feeds in my Google Reader, CreditBloggers:

A lawyer who helped a gang of mortgage scammers steal $23 million from banks pleaded guilty to seven felonies on Wednesday as part of the federal government’s larger crackdown on loan fraud.

[He] faces a maximum of 210 years in prison for his role in the scam, and he will be forced to repay the money he stole. He will be sentenced in April.

For once, somebody who got rich through scams gets what’s coming to him. Good!

Mortgage fraudster found guilty (and rich) is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Update on the Mortgage Fraud Crisis
2. The State Targets Mortgage Fraud
3. Mortgage Lender Sued, Pocketed $44 Million

Although most of the low-down and no-down payment purchase programs are long gone with the financial crash of 2008, we do have 1 lender who has 1 loan program that’s a 1% cash down payment program.

Here’s an example of a recent client of mine who used this program.

• Home purchase price – $85,500
• Seller contribution to buyer’s closing costs – $2,700
• 1% Down Program’s contribution to buyer’s down payment – $2,137
• Buyer’s cash out of pocket for home inspections, appraisals, utility company deposits, etc., – $500
• Buyer’s cash out of pocket on closing day, all-in – $1,033

The program is good in most of Metro Phoenix, AZ as of January, 2011. Among other things, buyers must meet a minimum credit score, and must have stable and verifiable employment income. Buyers must take a homeowners’ education class which takes about 1-2 hours of studying and about 15-20 minutes in exam time. The program can be used to buy a foreclosure (REO) home. The seller is not required to contribute to the buyer’s closing costs, but may.

Not all buyers qualify, and not all homes qualify. But it could be a viable option for you if you’re a little low on cash but want to be a homeowner.

Contact me for more details.

Heather Barr, Realtor
The Phoenix Agents at Thompson’s Realty
602-999-8831 or Heather@ThePhoenixAgents.com

photo credit: user daimon057 at the online photo sharing site StockExchange

Buy a home for 1% cash down is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Cash vs Loan by Size of Home
2. Cash Buyer? Got Your POF?
3. More First-Time Home Owner Mortgage Assistance!

Mortgage rates ended 2010 with a steep ascent but we have to keep the figures in perspective. Rates were higher then the year started versus when it ended. And, historically, we remain well below the average.

That’s why mortgage rates should rise in 2011. Momentum is drawing rates up, and the market is moving towards its mean. The Refi Boom is over and higher costs are coming.

Above quote originally published by, and copyright reserved by Dan Green of TheMortgageReports.com, an Ohio-based mortgage lender with an excellent blog.

Here’s a chart showing mortgage rates over the past 40 years.

Historically speaking, rates really have very, very little “down” left in them. It’s almost inevitable that mortgage interest rates will go up. How soon? Hard to say, but if you’re like the average home buyer, Murphy’s Law says rates will go up before you’re ready for them to do so.

Chart showing 30-year fixed rate mortgage rates over past 40 years was originally published by, and copyright of The St. Louis Federal Reserve, which has a website chock-full of useful and fun economic data, charts, graphs and statistics.

Mortgage Rates Headed Toward 6% is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. What were mortgage rates in 1990s?
2. Mortgage rates hit the mid-4’s!
3. Mortgage Rates to Rise in Spring