If you would like more explanation or information, we’re a local Austin mortgage company that wants to help. Give us a call today: 512-996-8194  We have the lowest closing costs in Austin.

Austin’s Current 30-Year Fixed Mortgage        

Refinance Rates:  as of 02/11/2009
 Mortgage Rates                       Interest Rate  APR
Conforming Loans   
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates    5.000%    5.213%
20-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates    5.375%    5.669%
15-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates    4.750%    5.115%
Texas Jumbo Loans – Amounts that exceed 417,000 
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates    6.625%    6.778%
Texas FHA – loan limits vary by county. 
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates    5.500%    6.170

Need a Texas Mortgage Refinance Home Equity Loan, go to:    http://www.mylendingplace.com/

Stimulus: Senate’s housing hopes for 30 Year Fixed Mortgage Rates              

  http://money.cnn.com:80/2009/02/01/news/economy/Senate_stimulus_housing/index.htm?postversion=2009020117

Lower mortgage rates, a foreclosure moratorium and more attractive tax credits to spur home buying are among possible amendments to recovery bill.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — As the economic stimulus package moves to the Senate, the drumbeat is growing louder for new provisions that directly address the housing crisis.

Key senators from both parties said they will push for measures intended to spur sales and help homeowners at risk of foreclosure.

“We need to go right at the housing problem. That’s what started all of this,” Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told CNN.

The Senate floor debate is set to begin on Monday. Here are three ideas likely to show up in amendments:

Create a 4% mortgage: Senate Republicans are likely to introduce a provision that would encourage lenders to offer a 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 4% for a limited period of time. The loans would only be available to credit-worthy home buyers and homeowners seeking to refinance.

The government would guarantee the loan for a number of years, an aide to McConnell told CNNMoney.com.

Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said on the Senate floor Friday that the measure could involve not only a government guarantee but a subsidy as well.                           http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/consumer_rates/

“If today’s prevailing rate were 5.2 or 5.3 percent … the government would make up the difference.”

The cost of such a provision hasn’t been determined yet, but the aide said Senate Republicans would seek to structure the proposal in a fiscally responsible way, without specifying exactly what that meant.

Offering government-backed low-rate mortgages “could be very popular politically as it tries to fix the banks by fixing consumers,” financial services analyst Jaret Seiberg of the Stanford Group wrote in a research note.             

But using government funds to force rates lower “could be very expensive,” Seiberg said.

And as mortgage rates rise, which they have in recent weeks, such a proposal could grow even more expensive.          

Expand home buyer credit: Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said last week he would propose an expansion of a temporary $7,500 first-time home buyer credit so that it applies to all purchases of primary residences.

Some Republican senators have called for an increase in the credit to $15,000.

On “Face the Nation,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday that lawmakers “can do more for housing.” The proposal to increase the home buyer credit to $15,000 and make it available to all home buyers is “something that we look favorably upon,” he said.

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/02112009_Alt_A_Resets.asp

The Senate recovery package as it stands now removes the requirement under current law that the credit be repaid by buyers over time, assuming they don’t sell their home for three years after claiming the credit.

The credit phases out for individuals making more than $75,000 ($150,000 for joint filers).

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