A word on FHA loans: the market currently seems perfectly happy to structure itself so that the government takes all the risk. Until a month ago, I was still of the opinion that FHA loans were a bad deal for the consumer much of the time. They carry mandatory mortgage insurance, and they also have an up-front fee of 1.5% of the loan amount tacked on to the closing costs. The tradeoff is that the rate is usually about .25% lower. Most of the time, that wasn’t a very good trade. Recently, however, credit restrictions have tightened to such an alarming degree that for a large number of borrowers there simply is no alternative. We offer FHA loans, and we’ve been funneling more and more of our borrowers into them, especially those needing to consolidate debt. That’s a trend I see continuing all this year.

Cj

P.S. If you find this information useful, pass it on and let me know who
else you know that would like to receive it. We’ll put them on our list. chris@thechrisjonesgroup.com

So I didn’t post.

I meant to post on 9/11 on the tragic and still almost unbelievable loss of that day. The year after I participated in the “Rolling Requiem”, an hour-by hour tribute to the dead through the singing of Mozart’s Requiem mass beginning at 8:17am in every time zone. I’ve not forgotten that day; nor, I suspect, have any of you.

But I didn’t post.

I meant to post on Wednesday the 12th, a day where I passed a test that a few years ago I failed. I hadn’t thought I’d come that far. I also learned several very important things that I want to share, but I didn’t have time when I got home at close to midnight.

And here we are on Thursday and hey! I have time!

The markets are fairly settled. There’s the distinct possibility of a Fed rate cut of as much as .5% next week, which would be a very aggressive move. It would ease the pressure on those that need to refinance out of adjustable rate mortgages (Fed moves directly affect ARMs), and that could help ease the fears in the secondary mortgage markets. Frankly, I can’t tease out how the Fed affects the entire world economy, so I tend to pull for those moves that make it easier for me and my clients to get loans done. That usually means rate cuts. Forgive the bias. But I do think that is what the Fed should do.

In an effort to expand our product range and provide more services to our clients we have developed a couple of new programs that are related to, but are not, mortgage loans. One is a huge undertaking that I’ll have a whole post about relatively soon, and the other is potentially the most useful mortgage add-on that I’ve ever seen. More about those later.