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mortgage rate, CT Connecticutmortgage rate - CT Connecticut: mortgages, loans of any type, refinancing, quick easy online quotes, home equity loans, See if you could save on your mortgage today. Theyre not as daunting as they sound. The first is just the percentage of your gross monthly income that youll need to spend on housing expenses after you buy the new home. It includes your mortgage payment, taxes, insurance and maintenance. Lenders will want to see a ratio of 28% or lower. The total-obligation ratio, meanwhile, is the portion of your income that goes to covering both your housing expenses and any other obligations, such as credit cards, car loans and child support. There, your lender will want to see a ratio of 36% or lower. Both of these ratios are often negotiable upward. A mortgage company that functions through the Internet as well as locally will provide choices through their site for home purchases, refinancing, home equity lines of credit, renovation and construction, first-time homebuyers, and blemished credit. For a specific group of consumers who do not fit into these choices will find a section for self-employed and other unique customers. Once you’ve clicked on the choice you want to learn about you’ll be supplied with information on the types of options that would be available to you. You want a strong agent. That is, you want someone who knows the market well enough to advise you on any given house; you want someone whos had experience in negotiating with sellers, and with closing; you want someone who can steer you toward at least three excellent settlement attorneys or building inspectors if you so desire. Ask about fees up front. Use the amortization calculator to figure in fees, insurance and tax payments. Loan term Rate Mthly. payment Total interest 30 years 8.00% $699 $164,155 15 years 7.75% $941 $69,429 Interest savings: $94,726 However, this is not always practical. Its for that reason that most of us go to retail stores and not wholesalers -- wed rather buy that pen at Wal-Mart than go to Bics manufacturing plant and ask if we can buy them direct. The retailer is providing a service (convenience, chiefly) and, for that, we are prepared to pay the markup. The Margin To determine the interest rate on an ARM, lenders add to the index rate a few percentage points called the margin. The amount of the margin can differ from one lender to another, but it is usually constant over the life of the loan. How often your payments are adjusted based on the index, and how much rates and payments increase at each adjustment, depends on your loan terms. A 6-month ARM adjusts every 6 months. A 1-year ARM adjusts once a year. Its a good idea to purchase a warranty for a resale home. The cost is usually only a few hundred dollars and your agent can help you choose the one thats best for you. As an added incentive, many home sellers purchase home warranties. These cover the home while the owner is trying to sell it and for a certain period of time after its sold. Also, definitely pay the few hundred dollars to have a home inspection. Its better to find out the roof needs to be repaired now, rather than two days after you close and the first storm hits. A Final Tip To keep your financial options open, make sure to ask the mortgage lender if the ARM is convertible to a fixed-rate mortgage. Also, ask if the ARM is assumable, which means when you sell your home the buyer may qualify to assume your existing mortgage. That could be desirable if mortgage interest rates are high. WHICH TYPE OF LOAN is best? That depends several factors: how long you plan to stay in your home, your interest-rate outlook, your budget, and your tolerance for risk.Adjustable-rate mortgages are initially cheaper than fixed-rate loans. And they can be a good deal if you know youre going to stay in your home for a relatively short period of time. But you run the very real risk that interest rates could rise sharply and drive up your monthly payments. Fixed-loans, on the other hand, cost more but offer no surprises. And for many, that comfort is worth the added price. Advantages · If the proceeds of the plans exceed the amount required to repay the mortgage, then this is received as a cash lump sum by the borrower. · Some plans are tax-efficient. Example Lets say you have a $100,000 mortgage. Lets compare how much money you would pay out in interest over 30 years vs.15 years. The following chart shows the numbers. The monthly loan payments are principal and interest only. As you can see, with a 15-year loan, you would save $94,726 in interest. The good news is that lenders over the last couple of years have become increasingly willing to finance as much as 95% or even 97% of a home. The reason: They can now unload the risk of such loans onto somebody else. To limit their exposure, many lenders regularly sell their loans to the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), which then bundles them into securities which are eventually sold to investors. It used to be that Fannie Mae only would buy loans for 80% financing. But it recently standardized the lending criteria for 97% financing and will now buy these loans, making lenders much more willing to provide them to you. Its now common for first-time buyers to put down only 5%, or $7,500 on a $150,000 loan. Apply Now Jump start the loan process by taking a few minutes to submit your information online. Easy, Really! Changing from an adjustable rate mortgage to a fixed brings advantages. ARMs fluctuate with changes in the market rates. Your monthly payments are likely to go up as interest rates increase. After Applying for a refinance quote ask the lender offering best rates to provide a couple of refinancing scenarios for you, showing how your loan term length, monthly payment and your total interest expense on the loan will change. The complete guide to mortgagesLet a mortgage refinancing company assist you A mortgage refinancing company assists you in the process of paying off an existing loan using property as security. A mortgage refinancing company locates unique loan marketplaces where lenders from around the world compete for your business! Hybrid Mortgages These are mortgages that combine elements of fixed and adjustable-rate mortgages. One example would be Fannie Maes two-step mortgage. It is a special type of ARM because it adjusts only once -- either at five years or at seven years. After that initial adjustment, the mortgage maintains a fixed rate for the remaining years of a 30-year repayment term. This new rate can never be more than six percentage points higher than your old rate. There are no limits on how much lower the adjusted interest rate can be. At the adjustment date, there is no additional refinancing cost, no forms to complete, and no re-qualification necessary. Most mortgage schemes, in return for offering you a lower initial rate, will require you to stay with that scheme at least for the period of the Discount, Fix or Cap, and often longer. If you wish to repay the loan in this time, or you remortgage with another lender, you will have to pay an Early Redemption Charge which can cost £thousands (6 months interest is common) depending on the lender and scheme. Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed. Your credit snapshot will improve over time if you make changes now in the way you handle your credit. Example If we compare the purchase of a $100,000 home under the 80-10-10 plan with a standard fixed mortgage including PMI, we find that the former is $17.45 cheaper each month. Another example is a balloon mortgage. Here the borrower makes initial payments at a lower fixed interest rate for a specified period of time, usually from three years to 10 years. After that period, the principal balance of the loan is due as a lump sum payment. Under certain conditions, however, balloon mortgages can be converted at that point to a fixed-rate or adjustable-rate mortgage. Booking Fee and Arrangement Fee Both are up-front fees charges levied at the outset of the mortgage. A booking fee will normally be required with the application form. A booking fee is paid to reserve funds on a mortgage product that has limited funds available e.g. a first-come, first-served fixed rate. Booking fees are often non-refundable, so if the mortgage applicant cancels the mortgage application before completion the fee will not be reimbursed. However, before you start looking in real estate agents windows for your dream home, you need to work out whether being a home owner makes financial sense for you. If such a move will stretch your finances, you may be better off continuing to rent and placing the money you would have used as a deposit into some other growth asset like a managed fund or shares. These investments are more liquid than property, which is useful if you need to sell up quickly Fixed or adjustable rate mortgage?This is considered a nonconforming loan, because it exceeds the loan limit set by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two publicly chartered corporations that buy mortgage loans from lenders, thereby ensuring that mortgage money is available at all times in all locations around the country. The 1998 single-family loan limit is $227,150. If you need to borrow more than that, you will need a jumbo mortgage, which generally has a higher interest rate than conforming loans. See the latest bankrate.com survey of jumbo mortgage rates. Generally speaking, to qualify for conventional loans, housing expenses should not exceed 26% to 28% of your gross monthly income. For FHA loans, the ratio is 29% of gross monthly income. Example Lets look at a $100,000 mortgage, at a fixed interest rate of 7.5 percent, for 30 years. In three decades, the homeowner would pay $151,717 in interest. THE HYBRID ARM ADVANTAGE Hybrid mortgages are gaining popularity as consumers opt for immediate monthly savings. How do they work? They combine the best features of 30 and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages and one-year adjustable-rate mortgages. Rates on these hybrids are as much as 1.5 percentage points lower than rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with more interest rate protection for a borrower than a traditional one-year adjustable-rate loan. |