Are you eligible for a VA loan?
A VA loan is a mortgage loan guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA loan was designed to help eligible veterans purchase a primary residence with long-term financing by offering more flexible credit terms. Veterans can qualify for a VA mortgage loan with up to a 103.3% loan-to-value ratio without paying private mortgage insurance and interest rates are lower than conventional loans. There is an up-front funding fee for a VA loan which ranges from 0 to 3.3% of the loan amount and is paid to the Veterans Administration. The up-front-funding fee for the VA loan can be financed into the loan amount, resulting in a higher loan to value ration than 100%; this fee is waived for veterans who are receiving 10% disability or more for their time in the service. In addition to the low down payment, debt-to-income ratios on a VA loan can go higher than a conventional loan. This means that a buyer can qualify for a higher monthly mortgage payment in relation to their monthly income than they could for a conventional loan. The maximum VA loan guarantee varies by county. Currently, in Lee County, Collier County and Charlotte County the maximum guarantee is $417,000 at a 100% loan to value. VA loans are the most lax when it comes to credit history: no foreclosures or short sales within the last 2 years (opposed to 7 and 4 for a conventional loan respectively) and bankruptcies must be 2 years from discharge of chapter 7 (opposed to 4 years for a conventional loan). Credit scores can go below conventional loan, but most lenders require a minimum credit score of 620.
Veterans who are looking to purchase a condo must make sure the condo is approved for financing by the VA. A list of approved condos can be found at: https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condlook.cfm.
D&V Home Mortgage offers VA home loans, FHA home loans, conventional home loans and jumbo home loans in Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties. If you are looking to get a mortgage loan in the Southwest Florida market, give us a call today to see if you qualify!
Mortgage Rates Plunge to Three Year Low
Mortgage rates plummeted to their lowest levels in three years this week.
According to the Washington Post, weak first-quarter economic growth, persistent global economic worries and last week’s anemic jobs report all contributed to pushing down bond yields. Because mortgage rates tend to follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury, home loan rates retreated.
D&V Home Mortgage offers VA home loans, FHA home loans, conventional home loans and jumbo home loans in Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties. If you are looking to get a mortgage loan in the Southwest Florida market, give us a call today to see if you qualify!
RSW Sets Record Quarter
According to an article published by the News Press “Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) scored record growth in the first quarter of 2016, including a 7.5 percent year-over-year increase in passengers for March. In March alone, the Fort Myers airport served 1,269,961 travelers, making it “the single-largest month for passenger traffic in our 33-year history,” said Bob Ball, executive director for Lee County Port Authority. The passenger count trifecta is especially significant because, for the airport, 2015 “was the best ever,” Ball noted.”
With such high demand in the beautiful SWFL market, property values are strong and homes are selling fast. Interest rates are still at extremely low levels, so now is the time to finance the purchase of your dream home. We have extremely low interest rates and we offer great products including: VA mortgages, FHA mortgages conventional mortgages and jumbo mortgages. For a free consultation on real estate mortgages in Fort Myers, Collier County, Charlotte County or the SWFL market, call us today.
What does the Fed Interest Rate Hike Mean for Mortgage Rates?
It had been nearly a decade since the Federal Reserve increased the target rate and seven of those years had been spent near zero percent. This historical length of accommodative monetary policy all came to an end on Wednesday, December 16th, when the Fed announced a quarter of a point increase to their target rate, increasing it to .50%.
Mortgage interest rates don’t directly follow the fed funds rate and are not expected to shoot up in the short term, but experts are calling for a 1% – 1.5% increase over the next 12 months. The average homebuyer isn’t quite aware of how low mortgage loan interest rates really are right now. According to CNBC, sixty-seven percent of prospective homebuyers surveyed by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, a network of real estate brokerages, categorized the level of today’s mortgage rates as “average” or “high.” The current rate of 4 percent on the 30-year fixed is less than 1 percentage point higher than its record low; this is drastically lower than the 18% the market saw in the 1980’s.
So is now the time to get a mortgage loan? Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae may have put it best: “The rule for when is it time to buy is always the same: given your household budget and where current interest rates are, if it makes good financial sense to take out a home loan today, then today is the day to do it.”
FHFA Announces 2016 Maximum Conforming Mortgage Loan Limits
The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently announced that maximum conforming mortgage loan limits for mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain unchanged in 2016, with the exception of certain designated high-cost counties which will increase. No changes to the conforming mortgage loan limits were observed in the state of Florida; the conforming mortgage loan limit in the state of Florida is $417,000, with the exception of Collier County and Monroe County which remained at $448,500 and $529,000 respectively. The conforming mortgage loan limit for Lee County is $417,000. There were 39 high-cost counties across the country which will undergo a limit increase in 2016: the majority of which were located in Tennessee and Colorado. A complete list of conforming mortgage loan limits for each county throughout the country is available on FHFA’s website: www.fhfa.gov.
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Good News for Interest Rates
The Federal Open Market Committee at the end of January calmly resisted the urge to set into play an increase in key interest rates, saying for now that holding the federal funds rate at 0-1/4 percent is “appropriate.” The FOMC statement described U.S. economic expansion since December at “a solid pace”–optimistic language not seen in previous statements. “Labor market conditions have improved further, with strong job gains and a lower unemployment rate,” the statement said. “On balance, a range of labor market indicators suggests that underutilization of labor resources continues to diminish. Household spending is rising moderately; recent declines in energy prices have boosted household purchasing power. Business fixed investment is advancing, while the recovery in the housing sector remains slow. Inflation has declined further below the Committee’s longer-run objective, largely reflecting declines in energy prices. Market-based measures of inflation compensation have declined substantially in recent months; survey-based measures of longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.” But the FOMC made no move to put a rate increase in place, saying in determining how long to maintain the target range of 0-1/4 percent, it would continue to assess progress toward its objectives of maximum employment and two percent inflation. Source: MBA
Good News for Suburban Real Estate
Millennials deep down may be suburbanites after all. In recent years, economists and demographers have argued that members of Generation Y will have a longer love for city living in smaller living quarter than their predecessors. But a newly released survey by the National Association of Home Builders discounts that, suggesting that what millennials really want is a single-family home outside of the urban center – just like other generations. The survey of more than 1,500 people (born since 1977) found that 66 percent of millennials want to live in the suburbs; 24 percent want to live in rural areas; and only 10 percent prefer to live in a city center. “While you are more likely to attract this generation than other generations to buy a condo or a house downtown, that is a relative term,” says Rose Quint, NAHB’s assistant vice president of survey research. “The majority of them will still want to buy the house out there in the suburbs.” One of their main draws to suburbia? They “want to live in more space than they have now,” Quint says. Eighty-one percent said they want three or more bedrooms in their home. “The preference for the suburbs suggests that future demand will be in the form of single-family homes rather than condominiums more prevalent in cities,” David Berson, chief economist with Nationwide Insurance Co., told The Wall Street Journal. “That’s also good news for future suburban single-family sellers, many of whom are baby boomers.” Source: The Wall Street Journal