Mortgage rates continue to trend lower providing some of the lowest mortgage rates of record. From the Alan Zibel of the Associated Press:
Mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate for 30-year fixed loans sank to 4.69 percent, from 4.75 percent last week.
That's the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971. The previous record of 4.71 percent was set in December. Rates for 15-year and five-year mortgages also hit lows.
This provides many Seattle area home owners a great opportunity to reduce their monthly mortgage payments by refinancing. Even if your home has depreciated, you may qualify for a Home Affordable Refinance with loan to values up to 105% or an FHA streamlined refi with no appraisal. Mortgages currently without private mortgage insurance (originally with an 80% loan to value with the first mortgage) may qualify to refinance without private mortgage insurance even if their new loan to value is over 80%.
Home buyers who have locked in rates this past week will probably never have the need to refinance while they own their homes.
Don't expect mortgage rates to stay this low for long. Do contact your local mortgage professional and see if refinancing makes sense for your personal scenario. If your home is located in Washington state, I'm happy to help you with your mortgage needs. You can follow me on Twitter to see what rate scenarios I'm quoting live.
11:00 a.m. update: Receiving an intraday rate sheet with pricing for the worse from one of the lenders we work with. (I'm glad I work with more than one–not all of the lenders have increased pricing yet). It appears to be a slight adjustment, however we've been averaging 2-3 rate sheets per day…and they all add up.
1:30 p.m. update: Receiving the 2nd intraday rate sheet from the same lender with pricing for the worse. Pricing with this lender is worse by over 0.3% in fee or 0.125% in rate from this morning's lows.
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