Central Jersey Mortgage Guide

INFINITYMORTGAGECO.INC.866-614-6411 30 yr Fixed5.6250/0$0/3005%5.64 30 yr Fixed Jumbo*5.990/0$0/30010%6.01 15 yr Fixed5.250/0$0/3005%5.27 5/1 Int. Only ARM Up To 1 Mil5.3750/0$0/30010%5.34 NEVER AFEE TO LOCK IN!! PRE QUALIFYIN 15 MINUTES!! * UPTO 1.5 MIL (A) 26 Broad St., Red Bank, NJ 07701LIC#L020980 NJHOUSING&MORTGAGEFINANCEAGENCY800-NJ-HOUSE 30 yr Fix6.1250/0N/A3% Down payment6.22 4% downpayment/closing cost assistance available for qualified 1st time & target area homebuyers. *APR 20% down or less includes mortgage insurance. Call or visit www.nj-hmfa.com for details and current rates. 637 S. Clinton Ave., PO Box 18550, Trenton, NJ 08650 (State Gov’t) CHOICEMORTGAGECOMPANY,LLC888-277-1222 info@choicemortgagecollc.com 30 yr Fixed 60/0$0/2505%6.01 15 yr Fixed5.50/0$0/2505%5.51 30 yr Fixed Jumbo6.250/0$0/25020%6.26 5/1 ARM Jumbo5.3750/0$0/25020%6.68 JUMBO RATES GOOD TO $1 MILLION, NO INCOME+NINA! (A) 10 E. Main St., Freehold, NJ 07728LIC#L045526 ProgramRateDisc/Orig PtsCr Rpt/Appr Fees%DownAPRProgramRateDisc/Orig PtsCr Rpt/Appr Fees%DownAPRProgramRateDisc/Orig PtsCr Rpt/Appr Fees%DownAPRProgramRateDisc/Orig PtsCr Rpt/Appr Fees%DownAPR Rates effective as of 5/2/08. ©2008 Bankrate, Inc. http://www.bankrate.com. LEGEND: (A) Mortgage Banker, (B) Mortgage Broker, (C) Bank, (D) S & L, (E) Credit Union. “Call for Rates” means actual rates were not available at press time. Conventional loans are based on loan amounts of $165,000. Jumbo loans are based on loan amounts of $435,000. Points quoted include discount and/or origination. Lock Days: 30-60. Annual percentage rates (APRs) are based on fully indexed rates for adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). The APR on your specific loan may differ from the sample used. Fees reflect charges relative to the APR. If your down payment is less than 20% of the home's value, you will be subject to private mortgage insurance, or PMI. Bankrate, Inc. does not guarantee the accuracy of the information appearing above or the availability of rates and fees in this table. All rates, fees and other infor-mation are subject to change without notice. Bankrate, Inc. does not own any financial institutions. Some or all of the companies appearing in this table pay a fee to appear in this table. If you are seeking a mortgage in excess of $417,000, recent legislation may enable lenders in certain locations to provide rates that are different from those shown in the table above. We recommend that you contact your lender directly to determine what rates may be available to you. To appear in this table, call 800-509-4636. To report any inaccuracies, call 888-509-4636. http://gmnews.interest.com LENDERS, TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS FEATURE CALL BANKRATE.COM SALES DEPARTMENT @ 800-509-4636 COMMUNITYHOMELOANS732-764-0002 www.chloansofAmerica.com 30 yr Fixed5.750/0$0/03%5.84 15 yr Fixed5.50/0$0/03%5.6 30 yr Fixed Jumbo6.250/0$0/05%6.34 5/1 ARM to 1 Million5.3750/0$0/05%5.47 Your Communities Home Lender! 90 DAYRATE LOCK/FLOATDOWN OPTION. (A) 428 Elizabeth Avenue, Somerset, NJ 08873L056835 HOMETOWNMORTGAGE,CO.888-854-8100 30 yr Fixed5.750/1$25/2755%5.84 30 yr Jumbo6.250/.5$25/27510%6.3 15 yr Fixed5.250/1$25/2755%5.4 10yr ARM5.250/.5$25/2755%5.3 *RESTRICTIONS APPLY- CALLFOR DETAILS VOTED BESTMTG CO. 2003-2007 ()33 W. Main Street, Holmdel, NJ 07733 Mortgage rates moved up modestly again this week. The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased 5 basis points, to6.16 percent, according to the Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point. The mortgages in this week’s survey had an average total of 0.36 dis-countand origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index was 6.28 percent; four weeks ago, it was 6.12 percent. Mortgage rates have been holding pretty steady in recent weeks, while home prices continue to drift downward. Some experts say this combi-nation makes it an excellent time to buy a home. However, tightening credit conditions are preventing millions of Americans from getting a conventional mortgage. Some of these borrow-ers now are turning to the government for help. FHA loans soaring Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration are poised to make up a bigger share of the mortgage market than they have in many years. The FHA expects to insure almost $224 billion in single-family mortgages during 2008, up from about $60 billion in 2007, according to agency projections. “They are becoming a gigantic, huge, important part of the mortgage market,”says Bob Walters, chief economist at Quicken Loans. Created in 1934, the FHA offers mortgage insurance on loans that FHA-approved lenders make to borrowers in the United States. The FHA’s original mandate was to spur homeownership in the wake of the Great Depression. The agency is now the largest mortgage insurer in the world, having guaranteed 34 million properties since its inception. For decades, FHA-insured loans were the mortgage of choice for many first-time homebuyers and borrowers with substandard credit who could not secure conventional mortgages. But these loans had fallen out of favor recently as financially challenged borrowers instead turned to private-party subprime loans. Many subprime loans have low initial “teaser” rates, making payments more affordable — at least until the rate adjusts later in the loan’s term. However, the subprime market meltdown and stricter lending stan-dards have caused many mortgage shoppers and Realtors to give FHA-insured loans a second look. FHA-insured loans now represent “many people’s only opportunity to get a mortgage,” Walters says. Attractive terms Several factors make FHA-backed loans attractive to borrowers. The loans are not subject to the strict underwriting guidelines associated with conventional loans and often require low down payments. In addition, there are no minimum credit-score requirements for borrowers seeking FHA-insured loans, although many lenders insist on scores of at least 580. Walters says FHA-insured loans are likely to play a pivotal role in any turnaround in the nation’ssagging housing fortunes. “(People with) very little down payment, bruised credit, higher debt-to-income ratios — those holes are being filled by FHA,” he says. He adds that unlike subprime loans, FHA rates are “very, very com-petitive.” Thanks to recent legislation, FHA-insured loans also may become a bigger part of the mortgage market in communities where homes are more expensive. Congress temporarily raised FHA loan limits as part of the 2008 federal economic stimulus package. The legislation allows the FHA to increase its loan maximum to 125 percent of a market’s median value. As a result, the 2008 FHA loan cap for a single-family home has jumped to $729,750 from $362,790. This should help increase the avail-ability of jumbo mortgages — typically, loans that exceed $417,000. In expensive California, the Home Builders Association of Northern California has begun promoting FHA-backed loans, saying they “may be the best option for homeownership.” Government to the rescue FHA-insured loans are also the centerpiece of a federal program intended to help stem the tide of foreclosures threatening to swamp some local housing markets. Dubbed FHASecure, the program helps home-owners struggling with subprime loans to refinance to FHA-backed loans, the vast majority of which are 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. From September 2007 to the beginning of April, the FHASecure pro-gram helped more than 150,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure by refi-nancing from subprime loans to FHA-backed mortgages, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Bush administration recently announced expanded eligibility cri-teria for the FHASecure program. HUD estimates that an additional 500,000 at-risk homeowners will refinance into FHA-insured mortgages. “If you are in a subprime loan, see if you can get an FHA loan,” Walters says. “If you can’t, you can’t, but it’s worth trying.” Some critics have voiced concerns about the expanded role of the FHA, citing the potential financial risk to the federal government. Others say early returns indicate the FHASecure program is not helping borrow-ers who are most in crisis. But despite these concerns, FHA-insured loans appear to be catching fire after nearly burning out earlier this cen-tury. Activity surge Orawin Velz, senior director of the Mortgage Bankers Association, or MBA, says FHA-insured loans already are picking up some of the slack left by the shriveling subprime market. The MBA tracks mortgage appli-cation activity each week, and statistics show a steady increase in FHA applications by people trying to refinance, Velz says. She predicts that the FHA market “will probably double originations” in the near future, helping to ease the current lending logjam, especially in a jumbo market that has undergone a “drastic decline.” “That is the only kind of bright side in terms of what we see in the market,” Velz says. She encourages borrowers unable to land a conventional mortgage to work with lenders and not simply assume that they will not qualify for an FHA-insured loan. “Maybe you need to educate yourself a little more,” she says. “You might be able to fit in where you didn’t before.” To find FHA-approved lenders, check the search engine at the agency’s Web site.å MORTGAGEUPDATE Mortgage rates creep up again By Chris Kissell Bankrate.com <WEBSITE>gmnews.interest.com</WEBSITE>