Texas Mortgage Rates: Is it a good time to refinance in Austin?  Are you a Texas homeowner that has been thinking about refinancing?  Texas mortgage refinance rates are still low.  Now is the time to refinance before the mortgage interest rates start to go back up.  We’re a local Austin mortgage company that has been successfully assisting people all over Texas with their mortgage refinance needs and goals.  We can help you, today!   Give us a call, today!

                                          Austin: 512-996-8194                             Houston: 713-589-2244

Today’s  Rates in  Austin, Texas   as of 04/11/2009
Mortgage Rates                          Interest Rate      APR
Conforming Home Loans: 
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate      4.875%    5.086%
20-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate      5.125%    5.416%
15-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate      4.625%    4.989%

Texas Jumbo Home Loans: (Amounts that exceed  $417,000)
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate     6.500%   6.651%
 
Texas FHA Home Loans: (loan limits vary by county) 
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate     5.000%  5.645%

Texas Mortgage Refinance Home Equity Loan

 Mortgage refinance rates go up slightly:                 

When mortgage refinance rates rise after a sustained fall, borrowers tend to jump off the fence. That happened last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Applications for home loans advanced modestly.

“While credit guidelines remain stringent, there are plenty of qualified folks who are putting more money back in their pockets by locking in a low mortgage interest rate,” says Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans. “Incentives like the First-Time Homebuyer Credit are helping to generate increased purchase activity.”

  http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/04092009_freddie_mac_rates.asp

There are other incentives out there besides the first-time buyer tax credit. One is home prices. According to the National Association of Realtors, almost half of home resales are “distressed” transactions: foreclosed houses and short sales. Typically, they sell for about 20 percent less than comparable homes, according to the Realtors.

Another sales incentive would be lower mortgage rates. They could be — maybe should be — even lower. The rates on mortgage loans are related to yields on mortgage-backed securities. The borrower’s rate reflects a markup over the yields on mortgage-backed securities — and that markup has been higher than normal this year.

Mortgage refinance rates arguably could be a quarter of a percentage point lower, ballparks Dick Lepre, loan consultant for Residential Pacific Mortgage in San Francisco. With so much consolidation in the industry over the last two years, a few huge lenders dominate the market. “They’re all trading profit for market share,” Lepre says.

http://mylendingplace.com:80/mortgage/rates/texas/

If a bank did cut mortgage-rate margins in a bid for larger market share, the others likely would follow. Then all the banks would have the same market shares as before, but would be making less money. In effect, banks are milking mortgage customers as one of the few sources of profit available. The Federal Reserve and the FDIC don’t mind — they want banks to be profitable and stable. 

The message might be getting through to borrowers that 30-year fixed mortgage rates are unlikely to sink well below 5 percent for any sustained period, except for a few lucky, well-qualified borrowers.

“We’re not going to 4 percent, so take advantage of the opportunity while you can,” says Jim Sahnger, mortgage consultant for Palm Beach Financial Network in Stuart, Fla.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=abS1N9zdTxtA

Sahnger worries that homeowners will wait for interest rates to fall further before applying to refinance — and by the time they apply, their houses will have lost so much value that they no longer can qualify for a standard mortgage refinance.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/mortgage-analysis.aspx

A good thing finally came to an end. Mortgage refinance rates went up this week, after a four-week slide that sent rates to lows that hadn’t been seen in more than 50 years.

The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 7 basis points, to 5.2 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 0.47 discount and origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index was 5.96 percent; four weeks ago, it was 5.37 percent.

The benchmark 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 2 basis points, to 4.75 percent. The benchmark 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage rose 4 basis points, to 5.27 percent.

In the nearly 24-year history of Bankrate’s weekly rate survey, the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage has been lower just twice — and those two times were the previous two weeks. The all-time low in Bankrate’s survey was last week’s average of 5.13 percent.  http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/rate-roundup.aspx

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Today’s Mortgage Refinance Rate in Austin: Are you an Austin homeowner interested in refinancing your existing loan? Are you interested in a Home Equity Loan? We’re a local Austin mortgage company that can help you today with your mortgage refinance needs.    Give us a call: 512-996-8194

Austin’s Current Rates as of 03/22/2009
Mortgage Rate                          Interest Rate   APR
Conforming Loans  
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate     4.625%   4.833%
20-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate     5.000%   5.289%
15-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate     4.625%   4.989%
Texas Jumbo Loans – Amounts that exceed $417,000 
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate     6.500%   6.651%
Texas FHA – loan limits vary by county. 
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate     5.000%   5.645%

Texas Mortgage Refinance Home Equity Loan

BofA out to make jumbo loans                                               

http://www.inman.com/news/2009/03/20/bofa-out-make-jumbo-loans?page=0%2C0

Bank of America has cut interest rates on jumbo mortgage loans in the hopes of expanding its share of what the bank sees as an underserved market for loans too big for purchase or guarantee by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Not everybody will qualify for the 30-year fixed-rate loans of up to $3 million that Bank of America has been offering at reduced rates since January, with interest rates currently in the high 5 percent range.

In order to qualify, borrowers will need strong credit (a 720 FICO score or above), down payments of 20 percent or more, documented income, full appraisals, and assets sufficient to cover six months of payments, said Bank of America product management executive Vijay Lala.

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/03232009_existing_home_sales.asp

But Bank of America thinks its fixed-rate jumbo loans will prove to be attractive to qualifying borrowers, because many competitors will be hard-pressed to match its rates.

Jumbo loans have become more expensive and harder to come by since September 2007, when rising delinquencies gave investors who fund most home loans through the purchases of mortgage-backed securities cold feet about “private label” securities that don’t carry the backing of Fannie and Freddie.

Unlike some lenders who must securitize and sell the loans they originate, Lala said Bank of America has plenty of room on its balance sheet to fund jumbo loans and hold them for investment, and is “putting the pedal down on our pricing and going after this market.”

Lala said Bank of America and Countrywide Financial Corp., which it acquired last year, funded $16.12 billion in jumbo loans in 2008. Although jumbo loan funding dropped to just $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter, Bank of America is already seeing “very nice volume” since introducing its more aggressive pricing.

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/other/03/20/0320homesales.html

Bank of America will only offer the loans directly to consumers — and not through independent mortgage brokers — through retail bank branches and Countrywide Home Loans (which will be re-branded Bank of America Home Loans on April 22). Lala said he expects many borrowers will be existing Bank of America customers.

The loans are aimed not only at homebuyers, but homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) jumbo loans who are looking to refinance at better rates. For both purchases and refinancings, the loan-to-value ratio can’t exceed 80 percent on loans up to $1.5 million, or 70 percent on loans up to $3 million.

        Need Texas Term Life Insurance? Visit: http://www.texastermlife.com/  

Today’s Texas 30 year fixed rate

30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate 6.375% 6.987%
20-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate6.75% 7.060%
15-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates 6.00% 6.631%

Austin Texas Jumbo Loans Home Loans

30-Year Fixed 8.250% 8.418%
15-Year Fixed 7.750% 8.009%

Remember, mortgage rates tend to go up when there is positive economic news and down with negative economic news.  

Was I the only one who filled my tank up on concerns over fuel prices?   Fortunately, Gustav didn’t cause near the damage that Katrina did.  

And the overall market tone is postive.   This is why mortgage rates opened up .125% over Friday.

PHONE:  512-996-8914, www.mylendingplace.com

http://mylendingplace.com/mortgage/rates/30-year-fixed-rates/

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