Scottsdale Arizona Mortgage Rates December 26, 2008
Mortgage Related News This Week
For the loan officers who are still loan officers, this week was busy with calling old clients and working with them to lock in while rates are low. At my desk, I wouldn’t exactly call it a “refi boom“, but it for sure is busier than it normally is the week of Christmas.
Nationwide, mortgage applications surged to the highest level in over five years in the latest week, mostly due to lower rates. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications, which includes both purchase and refinance loans, for the week ended December 19 soared 48%, the highest reading since the week ended July 18, 2003.
With tighter underwriting guidelines in place, be sure to double check that your loan officer hasn’t promised you something that they can’t deliver — like a funded loan! I have seen more than one situation recently where a loan officer promised something that they couldn’t deliver because they “weren’t aware” of the guideline changes.
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Thanks for the update, I think the lowest investor rate I have seen is hovering around 6.25%, that;s pretty good for a 30 year fixed. One of our brokers on Friday said that their main lender stopped lending to out of state investors….Have you run across this yet?
Rates are going lower and lower, pretty good time to be a buyer everywhere.
Ryan Philipenko - Edmonton Real Estate Agent
@Sean, we haven’t seen any of our “main” lender doing this - but anything is possible. The rules for investors seem to be changing on a regular (sometimes daily) basis. We will keep everyone posted if we see this happen in a big way.
@Ryan, agreed! With supply still at a very high level, we are seeing many “great deals” where sellers are paying closing costs *and* fire-sale prices… and as an added bonus, rates are low.
Interest rates are awesome right now. If you have the means to lock in a 30 year fixed rate loan, then do it! We’re seeing great deals in Bend, and they look even better with rates as low as they are.
@Dylan,
Thanks for the comment!
Great advice. We have been advising people to “look ‘em if you have ‘em” because interest rates are great right now and we don’t know for sure how long they will stay that way. Will they go lower? Maybe. Will they go higher? Maybe. Our un-official opinion is that they may head slightly lower for a period of time, but in the long run are probably headed higher. The only question is “does the long run start tomorrow or in a year?” That part, we don’t know.
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