If you want to refinance your mortgage loan and you can qualify, this is a great time to do it!  Mortgage rates are approaching the lowest rates in history – the 3.94 percent average that was recorded in the 1950′s.

First, lower payments. Second, you’ll get a month “off” making that mortgage payment – at least a month off at the beginning of the loan; you’ll still pay it at the end.   From MSNBC.com,

The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell back down to 3.94 percent, the record low set earlier in the fall.

Low rates offer a historic opportunity for those who can afford to buy or refinance. Still, few people are able to take advantage of the record-low rates or have already done so.

The rate on the 30-year home loan fell from 3.99 percent the previous week, Freddie Mac said Thursday. The 3.94 percent average is the lowest on records dating to the 1950s.

These really are incredible rates, but have not done much to help the housing market.  Time will heal that gaping wound.

When my husband and I bought our first house, we had to come up with about $8,000 for a down-payment and our interest rate – with great credit – was 8 percent.  We went from renting a duplex for $325 per month to a house payment of about $750 every month.

At today’s rates, the house payment would be about $510 per month (and that includes insurance and taxes)!  Florida agent Marco Giancola also recalls the days of high interest rates when he bought his first home,

It all hit me about a month later as I wrote the check for the first mortgage payment and discovered the interest rate was 18%. This memory popped into my head as I read that Freddie Mac announced on Thursday that the mortgage rates ticked up to 4 percent from 3.99 percent on a 30 year loan. Six weeks ago, it dropped to a record low of 3.94 percent, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

If you can qualify for a home loan, have good job security, a good down payment (and we’ve said this before here at the Shak), NOW is the time to buy!

Buyers from across the nation are enjoying the lowest mortgage interest rates ever.  Unfortunately the 4.09 percent interest for a 30-year loan has done little to boost home sales, according to MSNBC.com.  In fact, this has been the worst year for home sales since 1997.

Many Americans are in no position to buy or refinance. High unemployment, scant wage gains and large debt loads have kept them away.

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Others can’t qualify. Banks are insisting on higher credit scores and 20 percent down payments for first-time buyers. Some homeowners have too little equity invested in their homes to meet loan requirements.

Most people must also pay extra fees to get the low mortgage rates. Those fees are known as points, with one point equaling 1 percent of the total loan amount.

If more people could refinance, it would be an economic boost for America.  However, it seems to be a waiting game for the return of consumer confidence.

According to Fannie Mae, mortgage interest rates keep dropping.

Mortgage borrowing costs continued a downward trend this past week, according to Freddie Mac, as 30-year fixed rates dipped to the lowest point of the year and 15-year fixed interest fell to an all-time low. Freddie Mac said interest on the former averaged 4.32 percent, while the latter settled at 3.5 percent. The favorable rates sent loan applications up more than 20 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association indicated, with refinance activity climbing 30 percent.

If you can get a loan, now is a great time to buy.

Loan rates have been at historical lows for months now, but they are beginning to creep back up.  Both national and international events shape the mortgage loan climate and this is a busy week according to Michael Mertz of Sun State Home Loans,

Last week under­scores the impor­tance of the global com­mu­nity to the future of the U.S. mort­gage mar­ket. Two of the main rea­sons why mort­gage rates increased were non-domestic.

1. Con­cerns for a full-blown North Korea/South Korea con­flict less­ened quickly
2. The like­li­hood of a speedy, $85 bil­lion bailout Ire­land increased

The two events stemmed the typ­i­cal safe-haven buy­ing pat­terns that accom­pany geo-political and eco­nomic uncer­tainty, and drive down mort­gage rates.

This week, mort­gage rates may rise again.

Today the national average is 4.40 for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage loan.  True that the rate is increasing!

Mortgage rates have dropped to the lowest level they’ve been in decades, thanks to he announcement from the Federal Reserve about a massive bond-buying program.  The program is designed to spur economic growth because as the Feds buy more bonds, it will mean extra demand which will mean lower yields.  According to the AP article published on Comcast news, “Mortgage rates tend to track those yields.”

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Tuesday the average rate for 30-year fixed loans fell to 4.17 percent from 4.24 percent last week. That’s the lowest on records dating back to 1971.

The average rate on 15-year fixed loans fell to 3.57 percent from 3.63 percent. That’s the lowest since the survey began in 1991.

Eligible buyers are sitting on the sidelines of the housing market, worried primarily about job security.  In my own household we have suffered job loss of the primary bread-winner, but when things turn around (which I am 100 percent confident they will), we plan to refinance to take advantage of these amazing rates.

Here’s the latest rates, as disseminated by Freddie Mac,

Thirty-year fixed mortgages slipped to 4.27 percent this past week, the lowest on records dating back to 1971, from 4.32 percent the previous week. A drop in interest on 15-year loans to 3.72 percent from 3.75 percent, meanwhile, was the lowest on records dating back to 1991. Freddie Mac also reported that the five-year adjustable-rate mortgage fell to 3.47 percent from 3.52 percent the prior week, and the one-year ARM dropped to 3.40 percent last week from 3.48 percent.

How much longer can these rates remain low?  Probably as long as buyers are scarce!

My husband and I have been trying to refinance our home loan for well over six months now – reaching for that elusive 4.44 percent mortgage rate.  So far no luck.

Why?  Like many Americans today our loan is greater than the home is actually worth thanks to the great housing recession of 2007, 2008, 2009.  Will it stretch into 2010?  So far, yes.  Our credit score is pretty fantastic, but because we added a sunroom for $26,000 four years ago and did a refinance in 2006, the two liens on the property are for a greater amount than what the real estate is now worth to a tune of about $20,000.

As a result, we’re sitting for a few more years at the 6.5 percent interest rate.  What a tragic waste.

For us and for most of the rest of the country, the 4.44 percent interest rate is wasted according to CNN Money.

The fall in rates ostensibly means homeowners can lower their monthly loan payments by refinancing their existing loans. They’re certainly trying — the Mortgage Bankers Association reported last week that 78.1% of all mortgage applications fell under the refinance category, up from 58.7% in April.

But many of them are filling out all that paperwork only to get a rejection letter in response. The mortgage association does not quantify how many of those who apply for refinance actually get approved, but mortgage brokers say many homeowners are ineligible.

Yes, that’s us.  Just another middle class American tragedy.

Rates remain historically low in the U.S., so if home owners can refinance this is a great time to do so.  From my state association,

Freddie Mac reports that long-term mortgage rates moved south again this past week. Interest on 30-year fixed loans hit a new low of 4.49 percent, compared to 4.54 percent the previous week and 5.22 percent a year ago; and the 15-year mortgage landed at 3.95 percent, down from 4 percent the prior week and 4.63 percent a year ago. Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages reached a new low of 3.63 percent, down from 3.76 percent last week and 4.73 percent a year ago; while one-year ARMs fell to 3.55 percent from 3.64 percent last week and 4.78 percent a year ago.

In other news, loan modifications are under fire by some companies.  BlackRock Inc. says the government program HAMP is encouraging home owners into strategic defaults rather than loan modifications.  Instead, the company wants to see Congress pass a temporary bankruptcy that would eliminate second mortgages before addressing the first mortgages – which remain unmanageable when the second one remains.  This should prove interesting if Congress listens.

Have a great, debt-free weekend!

Loan rates are at historic lows, for those interesting in buying real estate today.  According to the Wall Street Journal through my own state real estate association,

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to a new low of 4.54 percent this past week from 4.56 percent the prior week and an average of 5.25 percent a year ago. The 15-year fixed loan rate also hit a record low of 4 percent, down from 4.03 percent a week earlier and 4.69 percent last year. The five-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 3.76 percent, compared to 3.79 percent the previous week and 4.75 percent a year earlier; and one-year ARMs averaged 3.64 percent, down from 3.7 percent and 4.80 percent, respectively.

In addition to buying a home, these rates should be taken into account for people considering refinancing.  Refinancing may be a preferred option to trying for the faux loan modification programs, which seem to be stalling for millions of homeowners.

According to a letter to the editor published in the New York Times, the modification programs are not working.  From John C. Liu, New York City Comptroller:

The current loan modification process is plagued by bureaucratic runarounds. Homeowners are frustrated by the unanswered phone calls, lost paperwork and seemingly endless red tape. The status quo approach is clearly not working.

Have to agree with him from everyone I’ve spoken with regarding the modification program.  My verdict is the lenders are going through the motions to satisfy the administration, but are not sincere about actually helping.