Despite Low Interest Rates, Few Refinancings in New York
With long-term interest rates bouncing around near record lows for the last several months, it’s been a great time for home owners to refinance–unless they live in New York, that is. According to stats from Inside Mortgage Finance, while there were 92 percent more mortgage refinancings nationwide in the first quarter of 2009 versus the…
With long-term interest rates bouncing around near record lows for the last several months, it’s been a great time for home owners to refinance–unless they live in New York, that is. According to stats from Inside Mortgage Finance, while there were 92 percent more mortgage refinancings nationwide in the first quarter of 2009 versus the same period a year earlier, the increase in New York State was only a modest 6 percent. The reasons? First of all, New York has a lot of high-priced real estate, and the best rates are only available on conforming loans ($417,000 and under); if there’s enough equity in your house and your credit score is high enough, competitive rates are available for so-called agency-jumbo loans ($417,001 to $729,750). Secondly, New York State has a painfully high mortgage tax of 2.05 percent, and it’s become harder and harder to avoid in the case of refinancings. Has anyone refinanced a jumbo or agency-jumbo loan in the last few months? What kind of rates and fees did you encounter? What are the best banks to go to in this category?
New Yorkers Miss Refinancing Spree [NY Times]
Loan limits are still temporary and may be decreasing back down at the end of this year. So take advantage of the rates while they last. Banks are definitely backed up, but if you can lock a good rate and save money it’s worth the wait
Adam what is your e-mail address and phone number. I am looking at refinancing. Thanks
Good Deal bklyndoug. It pays to keep your head and see these things through. I had a couple of loans for fellow brownstoners that we have been working on since Jan that are just starting to close because of subordination and CEMA issues. My clients have also been very patient and we relocked them in on one of the good days. I have been waiting for the new limits for a while telling my other clients to be patient. Now it’s time to finish everything up.
The CEMAs have additional fees but it’s much better than dealing with 15k in additional taxes.
Chase is 1100
Wells is 750 plus another 450 for their lawyer
I’d have to check the other banks to see what their schedules are.
Plus the additional 250 in recording of the CEMA docs.
adam –
i was about to close in march when my broker told me that the loan limits were going back up to 729 (at the time they were 625). i had gotten killed in the market so i was looking to preserve some rainy day cash, and so the higher limit was appealing. we were able to lock the old rate through to may to protect against the rate creeping up. when the new limits came through the rates remained the same so we went with that. we have not yet closed but we since we were about to do so in march the appraisals and the CEMA are already in place (same lender).
closing costs were around $5K with the CEMA if I remember correctly.
As I said above the 729k limit started last Friday. All the lenders should be using that number now for the conforming JUMBO limits.
1 unit 729,750
2 unit 934,200
3 unit 1,129,250
4 unit 1,403,400
FHA loans have been using these limits for about 2 months but Fannie/Freddie just started up again 3 days ago.
4.875% no points is a good rate for 1 unit properties. That of course is if you have excellent credit and sufficient equity in the property. LOW LTVS.
Bkyndoug- How did you close on 729k already? Did you do an FHA loan? The Fannie Limits started on Friday of last week. Did you just start the paperwork?
Rates were at bottom last Tuesday on fears of the swine flu but have moved higher since then. They are holding pretty steady compaired to the Treasuries which have sold of significantly with the 10yr hitting 3.14%
Original loan/home bought January ’08. Just closed last week on a 30-year fixed conforming refi with Wells Fargo, who held existing notes on our three-family home. Combined current mortgage and home equity loan (not a HELOC) with enough money to pay for total closing costs of about $22,000 — including a point and half to get a 5% rate. New loan amount is just under $850K and saves us $600/month.
I know that the feds increased the conforming limit to $729K for high-value markets like NYC. But at least at Wells Fargo a couple of weeks ago, they were sticking to the existing $625.5K conforming limit, because that was the limit that Freddie and Fannie would repurchase mortgages. Has there been a change? Which lenders are actually using $729K now to write paper?
Well how many of you think home mortgages are going to be close to 4.5 percent for the next 30 years. I am no math genius but I don’t think so.