Probably, but I refied two years ago at 5%. CU says 4% for a 30 year. Dunno if that's really worth the hassle considering my mortgage is well under $200k (we bought our house when the neighborhood was "emerging". Handyman special! Just bring a machete to run off the crackheads!)
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Mortgage rates at all time low
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I mentioned on the previous page my CU said 5%. YMMV obviously.
Abel007
Platinum Member
FHA loans require 3.5% down. I just locked in a few months ago for a 30yr fixed @ 4.25. Still happy with that. Interest rates are crazy right now. The online calculators sometimes do not include tax/insurance that will be tacked onto the house payment as well as a mandatory MIP (Mortgage Insurance Premium) if you do just the minimum 3.5% down. I believe the it is 1% for 5 years until the LTV (Loan to Value) is 78% or greater.
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JTsyo
Lifer
Couldn't you refinance now to a fixed to keep the low rate? Or is there something that forces you to stay with the ARM?
NuclearNed
Raconteur
I just got the wife to check... Suntrust's 15yr fixed rate is 3.25%
Very tempting. My current mortgage is ~4.875%, 30yr.
Very tempting. My current mortgage is ~4.875%, 30yr.
IndyColtsFan
Lifer
That's probably a win. I wonder if they will go under 4%. I had a no points/fees refi in March of 2010 at a rate of 5.125% and I'm getting an itchy trigger finger again.
jlee
Lifer
If I'm looking for a house in the next year or so, how far ahead of time should I be looking to get a pre-approval for financing?
I'm moving in two months and would like to buy something within a year - still too far out, or should I start now? I'd probably be looking at a 10% down payment, first house & excellent credit, FWIW.
I'm moving in two months and would like to buy something within a year - still too far out, or should I start now? I'd probably be looking at a 10% down payment, first house & excellent credit, FWIW.
417k in almost all areas.
From my research in buying a home soon I believe your best route would be to go Conventional with 20% down as that will remove the PMI from your loan. Now I have not taken into account what tax breaks you'd get with PMI as it is deductible, so this may not be 100% the case.
On the surface it would seem like if you have 20% to put down go Conventional all the way.
JTsyo
Lifer
yea did a bit of reading. Looks like my area the limit is up at $729,750. Though Wiki says some lenders do not respect the new limit.
Trying to figure out if it's worth going from 4.875 to 4.5 for $1100. Lender says $300/mth savings but I think that's from pushing the loan out for another 30 years. Though if I keep paying at the same rate, I should finish much quicker than I'm currently going.
jlee
Lifer
If you do less than 20% down, can you remove PMI at a later time without refinancing entirely?
No. As you would be changing the terms of the loan.
Conventional definitely. It's a stronger offer when you put your offer in because it requires HIGHER credit scores to even get conventional financing.
When I purchased my house back in 2009, the house I offered on had 7 offers.
Mine was 7k over list + 10% down + i'd pay my own closing costs. I was competing against ppl who offered 20k OVER the list price but they were FHA.
🙂
Except in high value areas like California and Colorado, where it's $729k, until the end of September. So, hurry up if you live in such places.
Sure if you pay 78% of your loan to debt ratio off, then PMI will vanish! Or if you make renovations (structural renovations if i recall correctly). And you get your home re-appraised and they deemed the house remodel = higher in equity then the amount you financed for.
JTsyo
Lifer
I heard of people making payments on time for 2 years and then getting PMI removed. Not sure if they hit 20% equity in that period. But it sounds like you can get PMI removed.
There are some rules you have to follow and off memory it's something like this.
-You get your house re-appraised and you meet the 80% / 20% test.
-Make structural renovations to your house
-2 years of on time payments made
Then PMI can get removed.
jlee
Lifer
Ok, nice - I wasn't sure if you'd have to refinance entirely or if they could drop it once you passed the 20% mark. I could save and put 20% down, but I'm a little concerned about interest rates going back up and the real estate market recovering. Then again, that might take a while anyway (looking in the Phoenix area).
I haven't done much research in the housing markets but I recall that the worst hit places were CA,FL, and AZ. I dont think you have anything to worry about. And the market will be messed up for probably another 5+ years. But this is all speculation on my part.
PingSpike
Lifer
Its suppose to be automatically canceled once the loan reaches 78% of value (although I'm not sure which value that is based on since value changes over time...the original appraisal from when the loan was created?)
And as mentioned there are more proactive methods to get it gone with your equity at 20%. At least that's what my reading back when I purchased indicated. Obviously they've been screwing around with loan rules a bit lately.
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