Sunday, September 26, 2010

Why you should consider a refinance home mortgage loan

There are still a ton of different options that exist to get a refinance home mortgage loan or a refinance 2nd mortgage. Many homeowners out there will refinance their mortgages for a lot of different reasons. For example you may have recently experienced a job loss. Getting a mortgage refinance loan is a very important step that you decided to take so here are some of the things you need to know to have the best outcome.

Home Mortgage Refinance Plan Offer:
  • Reduce your monthly payments
  • Lower your net interest rates
  • Lowest interest rates nationwide
  • Get mortgage debt relief fast
  • Simple Mortgage Solutions
  • No Closing Cost

You may be tempted to jump at the opportunity of having a short term cash out refinance rate, but you should not do it. If you don't have any financial troubles currently, and you need to save money now, think long term. If a company is offering you 5% for only six months of the mortgage refinance loan and after that period is up you will pay 8% it does not sound good at all. It is much better to accept a 6.5% flat rate for the entire duration of the refinance home mortgage loan or until you find a better deal.

From time to time we can see that new lending companies are showing up in the market. Additionally , you can also see them disappearing just as quickly. If you are going to consider getting a refinance home mortgage loan deal make certain that it's going to still be there tomorrow. It is not worth it to refinance a 2nd mortgage if the new deal is to risky. Your family and your home are obviously going to be worth the effort it takes to research a little longer for the best deal

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Home Equity Lines of Credit: The Next Looming Disaster?

A Brief Explanation of HELOCs

A HELOC is quite similar to a business line of credit and has some similarities to a consumer credit card as well. Using the residence as security, a homeowner is given a line of credit with a prescribed limit upon which the borrower can draw at any time.

The homeowner receives a draw period of anywhere from five to 10 years when funds can be drawn. During this draw period, the borrower is usually required to pay interest only. The rate is adjusted monthly and is pegged to the prime rate. The repayment period is typically 10 to 20 years. The monthly principal payment is usually the outstanding balance at the end of the draw period divided by the number of months in the repayment period.

Because qualifying standards were based primarily on the equity in the home, HELOCs became nearly irresistible in those states where prices were rising rapidly in 2004-2005. Homeowners discovered that their home had actually become a money tree which they could shake almost at will. 

Madness of HELOC Lending During the Bubble Years

Aided by the seemingly limitless desire of banks to lend money, homeowners opened an incredible number of HELOCs during the bubble years of 2004-2006. 

Nowhere was the madness of HELOC-borrowing more astounding than in California. During the two key years of 2004 and 2005, a total of 1.43 million HELOCs were originated in California just for the purchase of homes, according to figures received from CoreLogic. 

"Wait a minute," you say. "That's more than the total number of homes sold in California during these years." Correct. A total of 1.25 million existing single-family homeswere purchased in California in 2004-2005 according to the California Association of Realtors. 

At first, these California HELOC numbers may be a little puzzling. However, they make sense when you consider the speculative mania that occurred during the bubble years. In my earlier article about investor speculation, there was an example of caravans filled with out-of-state speculators looking to buy investment properties in Austin. One was a young Californian who had sold a few of his Phoenix investment properties so he could roll his profits into Austin homes.