One thing is certain; you have a choice when it comes to your mortgage. Home owners in Connecticut can turn to banks, credit unions or mortgage brokers. Eversley Capital Mortgage is a local Norwalk CT mortgage broker that is offering some of the lowest rates in the state.

By offering low mortgage rates and low closing costs it allows Eversley Capital to separate themselves from the other banks and lenders out there. If you are in the market to buy a home or refinance you are a click away from one of Connecticut’s lowest mortgage rate brokers.

www.EversleyCapital.com

Phone: (203) 838-6760

Looking for a great site to calculate mortgage rates? If you go to my website www.EversleyCapital.com and go to the calculators tab on the page you can get a wide range of choices.

You can use a standard mortgage calculator to figure out payments based on the calculated mortgage rate as well interest only mortgage calculators, a refinance calculator, bi-weekly mortgage calculator, amortization calculator and most important a how much home can I afford calculator.

All these calculators are free for homeowners and potential ones to use so feel free. When you are done click the secure “apply now” tab and let us help you finance your home with Connecticut’s mortgage price leader, Eversley Capital Mortgage LLC.

It should come as no surprise that FHA is tightening the belt where mortgages are concerned. Homeowners in Connecticut and across the country will soon see higher fees for an FHA mortgage and they will also see much stricter guidelines.

Presently an FHA mortgage is the only option if you do not have a large down payment to buy a home. The minimum is still a 3.5 percent down payment where as conventional loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is roughly 10 percent depending on the property.

As the mortgage crisis hit conventional loans raised the credit score requirements for borrowers to obtain mortgages. FHA still kept the same guidelines, lending to borrowers with credit scores below 600 so now as the default rate is jumping for FHA loans the bar is being raised. There was a great article in the New York Times this past weekend that talks about this very topic. NY TIMES ARTICLE 

Some good news for the folks Connecticut who apply for a jumbo mortgage in Fairfield County, Hartford County, Middlesex County and Tolland County. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have extended the conforming jumbo mortgage program through all of 2010.

Homeowners and potential ones have had the pleasure in these counties of having some really great mortgage rates for loans that are higher than the conventional mortgage limit of $417,000. In the past any loan higher than the conforming limit would be considered a jumbo mortgage and the mortgage rates were somewhat higher. The high balance conforming mortgage program allows borrowers in these counties to apply for higher loan amounts and the rates are close in comparison to that of a loan that is $417,000 or less.

Here is a list of the counties and the loan amounts that they can go up to:

Fairfield County:  $708,750

Hartford County:  $440,000

Middlesex County: $440,000

Tolland County:  $440,000

Today mortgage rates in Connecticut and the rest of the US for that matter are still under 5 percent. In fact for those that qualify today we are 4.75 percent for a 30 year fixed mortgage and paying ‘zero’ points. The question is how long will rates be here?

Mortgage rates are well off their fresh lows that bottomed out in the end of November and the first week of December and well up from the low 4’s in the spring of 2009.

The Federal Reserve has been a main component keeping rates where they are. In fact they are more than likely the main reason mortgage rates are still sub 5 percent. The thought behind that statement is as part of our economic bailout the Fed was the main buyer of mortgage backed securities making the mortgage rates almost artificially depressed to stimulate the housing market. Well in the coming months that is coming to an end and we will see the true test of the mortgage backed securities in the open market. Albeit sub 5 percent is not where we will be this summer.

The point here is if you are one of the many on the fence about refinancing or purchasing some will end up on the sub 5 percent side of the fence and then there will be those who unfortunately will be looking at 5 percent and higher. The time is now if the rate makes sense for you.

Starting the New Year for mortgage applicants in Connecticut and all of the U.S. will bring some change. The way borrowers will review their loan quotes via the GFE (good faith estimate) has been radically changed.

What borrowers and lenders have known and grown accustomed to is a single page GFE that line itemized all the fees associated with your loan. From bank and lender fees to attorney and escrow fees, it was all on one page to view. Here is an example of the “old GFE” . This is the “New GFE”. The bottom line is they are radically different.

I would be willing to bet that there will be a lot of consumers who will not readily grasp the new GFE. So here is a link to HUD explaining how to read the new GFE

The U.S. House and Senate have passed the extension of the conforming jumbo mortgage through all of 2010. The mortgages which are securitized through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac as well as FHA have helped a non-existent jumbo mortgage market.

The mortgages are not available in all real estate markets. They are for select “high cost” counties in states across the country. Seeing as Everlsey Capital Mortgage is in Norwalk Connecticut here are the loan limits per county:

                Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac Limits:

                Fairfield County     $708,750

                Hartford County     $440,000

                Middlesex County $440,000

                Tolland County      $440,000

                FHA (Federal Housing Authority):

                Fairfield County      $708,750

                Hartford County      $440,000

                Middlesex County   $440,000

                Tolland County        $440,000

Unfortunately Windham, New London, New Haven and Litchfield counties in CT are not designated “high cost” counties so the loan limits there for conforming loans are $417,000.

I have read numerous articles on this very topic “Loan Modifications”. It seems that those two words to the naked eye would seem normal or a good thing. The problem here the majority of articles I read make loan modifications seem like a dirty word. How could that be? President Obama is constantly calling for banks and lenders to do more and get more loans modified. I have read the articles of the fly by night scam companies who are ripping off home owners by taking their money and promising them to help them get their loans modified and never even processes the paperwork.

There are bad apples in every industry need we even begin to list the bad apples in the stock market? There are awful Doctors, worthless attorneys, shoddy contractors do we need to continue? The media and the government for some reason have a problem even for the honest Joes out there to get in the loan modification business. So when I had a past client pop in my office and explain her story curiosity killed the cat.

In March of 2006 I pre-qualified T.C. she was a first time homebuyer and ecstatic to become a homeowner. She had a good job in the medical field so she qualified for 100 percent financing at the time. She had a great realtor at Re/Max and they found a condo in Connecticut. She purchased her condo in May of 2006. A year later she called me to try and refinance however at this point the mortgage market was deteriorating so there was no better deal for her out there.

So fast-forward to the beginning of August 2009 and in my offices pops T.C. and she seemed troubled. She was looking for her realtor who was not in the office; his office is upstairs from mine. I asked her how she was and she said not that good. She had been un-employed for almost a year and wanted to talk about the possibility of renting her condo or selling it.

She had exhausted savings, tapped into her 401k and turned to relatives to help her out financially. Even though she had been un-employed almost a year she was still struggling to make her payments on time with family help and un-employment income.

I asked her if she had tried to get a loan modification? She was not real sure what that was. So I explained it to her and said I will help you put the paperwork together and submit the request. She was concerned about how much that would cost and assured her it would be nothing, I wrote her mortgage to buy the home and I was curious as to the process so we decided to give it a try. I helped her fill out the paperwork and we submitted her loan modification request to her lender GMAC mortgage. Four weeks later GMAC offered to reduce her payment from $1,250 to $850 for 3 months and they will revisit the loan at the end of three months.

In my opinion that was one of the easiest transactions I have had all year even though I made no money doing it. I will tell you it was extremely rewarding to be able to help her out.

If Congress really wants to make a push to get more banks and lenders to get loan modifications done I think the approach needs to be different. Had T.C not come in that day she more than likely would have become a foreclosure statistic. At least now her head is above water and hopefully will find work soon to get back on track. I think a lot of home owners fall behind or about to fall behind and really do not know what their options are. If they did I think we could avoid a lot of foreclosures.

Gov .M. Jodi Rell signed into law help for Connecticut’s homeowners facing foreclosure. Under the new law homeowners would be required to seek mediation services to help keep them out of foreclsosure.

In 2008 CT used the mediation program as a voluntary option for residents facing foreclosure. After having much success with the homeowners who used it Gov. Rell signed it into law making it mandatory. The mediation program will be retroactive to July 1^st 2009.

As the mortgage crisis continues this new bill will help keep borrowers in their homes if they fall behind on payments or into foreclosure. It helps all parties involved, the homeowners, the banks, the neighbors and the community. Foreclosures can cost banks and lenders thousands upon thousands of dollars and abandoned homes do not help the neighborhood values either.

I type this with caution as the past five days have finally given a reprieve to the fast rising mortgage rates. From the fours to topping out near six in a quick two week unraveling of mortgage rates, here in CT we are getting close to being back at 5 percent for a 30 year fixed mortgage.

While the pullback from the sharp increase was due I would air on the side of caution to say we are heading back to seeing rates in the fours the market is looking for a trading range. A yield of 3.5 percent seems to be a bottoming point for the 10 year Treasury. The 10 year Treasury touched 4 percent 5 days ago and has since sold off.

For the meantime this pullback may be a quick opportunity to jump in on the bottom side of rates. I am certain 3.5 percent will be the test to see if that is bottom. If the treasury bounces from that number we may see the see saw effect the rest of the summer, bouncing from a 3.5 - 4.00 yield. That would put mortgage rates in a 5- 5.50 percent or so range. The next several days will tell if we hold or fall through 3.5 percent. Here is a chart of the past 5 days of the Treasury bond.