30 Year Fixed FHA 6.250% (7.073% APR) Discount points to bank of $2611 $500,000 Purchase Price $490,943 Loan Amount 3.5% Down Payment $17,500 720+ credit scores, single family primary home purchase, 45 day lock period 30 Year Fixed VA 6.3750% (6.374% APR) Discount points to bank of $2487 $500,000 Purchase Price $511,500 Loan Amount with financed VA funding fee First time VA use Zero down payment, 720+ credit scores, single family primary home purchase, 45 day lock period 30 Year Fixed Conventional 6.99% (7.329% APR) Discount points to … Continue reading...
Sellers are looking to sell with interest rates coming down
If you’re looking to buy a home, the recent downward trend in mortgage rates is good news because it helps with affordability. But there’s another way this benefits you – it may inspire more homeowners to put their houses up for sale. The Mortgage Rate Lock-In Effect Over the past year, one factor that’s really limited the options for your move is how few homes were on the market. That’s because many homeowners chose to delay their plans to sell once mortgage rates went up. An article from Freddie Mac explains: “The lack of housing supply was partly driven by the rate lock-in effect. . … Continue reading...
How Do Mortgage Points Cut Your Interest Costs?
Those who are involved in the real estate industry likely know that mortgage rates are at an all-time low. At the same time, nobody wants to pay more for a house than they have to. Some of the most important factors that dictate how much someone is going to pay for a house include points and interest rates. While interest rates are incredibly low, there is a way to make them lower. This comes in the form of points. This is additional money that is paid upfront to get a better deal over the life of the loan. Even though this sounds great in theory this might not be the best option for … Continue reading...
What goes in a Mortgage Payment
Mortgage Payment What Goes into A Mortgage Payment? Understanding Your Home Loan Wondering what goes into your monthly home loan payment but don’t speak mortgage-ese? Our team at Southern Trust Mortgage has you covered. In this article, we’ll share everything you need to know about the two biggest components of your mortgage payments, the principal and interest, help you determine what you owe or will pay, and discuss the other factors that add to your payments. Let’s dive in. What is The Principal Amount? The principal is simply the total … Continue reading...
Interest rates are coming down
Should you buy a home now or try and time the market and buy later if mortgage rates come down further? This is always a difficult decision especially when life is drawing you to buy a home. (Image: Freddie Mac Mortgage Rate Weekly Survey) There may be a window of opportunity to own a home in the Phoenix Arizona metro now with home prices having declined somewhat while mortgage rates are inching down for the 5th consecutive week to 7.22% (good credit). Remember, you can marry the home of your dreams but only have to date the mortgage rate. One can date the rate by refinancing later when … Continue reading...
Items to think about loan rates.
With the combination of rates being at the highest levels for years and prices up, and the Media putting a negative spin on EVERYTHING… Can we blame them? Probably not… but we certainly can educate them. First up: Prices are not likely to go down. Take a look at this chart: For the past 40years we have averaged 2-2.5 million units listed for sale in the country. We have been struggling with less than half that average for a few years. What you can’t see on this chart is; of that current inventory number, over 30% is under contract so the available number is more like 700,000 homes. … Continue reading...
Starter Home vs. Forever Home: Pros & Cons
By Matt Carson on 10/24/2023 Tags: buying a home before you buy Buying a starter home vs. your forever home | Guaranteed Rate In today's housing market, a growing number of first-time homeowners are opting to skip over the traditional ‘starter’ home and purchasing their 'forever' home first. This is the home that they plan to live in for the rest of their life. While this strategy of finding a home that will suit all of their future needs won't work for every first-time homebuyer, a 'one-and-done' approach is definitely worth considering. In this discussion, we'll take a look at the top … Continue reading...
What Buyers need to know about buying a home
There are costs when buying a home, most people know about THE price of the home and the associated down payment with the balanced financed over the course of the mortgage. However, here are 10 "Other" Categories of Costs When Buying A Home. Let's review them. Per Craig Donofrio in Realtor.com November 7, 2023, "The costs of buying a home go well beyond the actual purchase price. If you’re a first-time home buyer, you might get a little queasy when the last line of your good-faith estimate comes in at several thousand dollars. And after the color returns to your face, you might also be a … Continue reading...
Getting a divorce, some items you need to know.
For owner occupied residences, we are limited to 80% max loan to value ratio. When it comes to a divorce, if one spouse is keeping the house they will often have to pay the departing spouse their share of the equity in the home. A cash out mortgage is often necessary to get this done. However, the traditional Texas Home Equity loan could make that difficult due to the cap at 80% of the available equity. Enter the Owelty loan. This is specifically for a divorce where cash is needed to pay the departing spouse. You can get cash out to pay off the departing spouse, even if the loan … Continue reading...
Will the real estate market heat up this summer
Will the housing market heat up this summer? 2023 has been an unpredictable year in the housing market. After the upheaval of the pandemic and the low interest rates we saw over the last two years, it seemed like a return to normal was coming this year. And one of the ways the market was going to get back to normal was that the hot spring selling season was going to return. But that never really happened. High rates and a stubbornly low number of homes for sale cooled off hopes for a hot market this past spring. Upheaval in the banking sector scared a lot of folks away from making … Continue reading...