30 year Mortgage Rate Chart.´¯`. Are refinance rates going up?

September 24, 2008

Mortgage Rate Chart, 30 year fixed Rate

Today’s mortgage / refinance rates are a little higher than they were yesterday. (see below chart)

As you can see on this 30 year fixed mortgage chart, rates have been moving up fairly aggressively since the first of Sept.

Mortgage rates went down significantly right after the government took over Fannie Mae/freddie mac however rates have rebounded. This is a great example of why you need to work with a broker who truly follows the market.

Today’s 30 year mortgage rate is between 6.00-6.25% depending on your credit score and the LTV (loan to value). Remember, banks prefer lower LTVs or loan to values, especially when the borrower has lower credit scores.

http://mylendingplace.com/mortgage/rates/30-year-fixed-rates/

30 year mortgage rates Texas

Today’s 15 year mortgage rate is much better, of course. 5.875-6.25%, again these rates are tied to one’s credit score and LTV.

Texas Mortgage Refinance Home Equity Loan Application

I’m doing a lot of home equity loans (80% LTV) as people realize they’d rather have a mortgage rate in the 6’s than pay 16-26% on higher interest credit such as credit cards. The average family saves $400-$600 per month when they consolidate thier bills with a home equity loan. In many cases a debt consolidation loan gives a family the needed leverage they need to get on-top of thier bills and pay them off completely…forever.

Today’s mortgage rates also make it a good time to buy or refinance. I specialize in “no PMI” mortgages using 80/15 or 80/10 home loans. My phone number is 512-996-8194 and we help people all over Texas.

Other Mortgage Rate News:

Realtors say existing home sales fell in August.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080924/ap_on_bi_ge/home_sales

WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes fell in August, but the number of unsold homes on the market also dropped sharply from the previous month’s record high.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that sales fell 2.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.91 million units, from an upwardly revised pace of 5.02 million in July. Sales had been expected to fall by 1.6 percent, according to economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR.

There were 4.3 million unsold homes on the market, a 7 percent drop from the record set in July. It was the steepest drop in inventory since December 2006. At the current sales pace, it would take 10.4 months to sell all the properties.

Until the inventory level is reduced to more normal levels, analysts say, the housing slump is likely to persist. Inventories are being driven higher by a massive wave of mortgage foreclosures.

“We hope the downward trend in inventories continues,” said Lawrence Yun, the trade group’s chief economist. “Home prices will not stabilize as long as inventories remain high.”

Median prices — the point at which half of the homes sold for less and half for more — fell 9.5 percent from a year ago to $203,100, the largest price decline on records dating to 1999. Sales were 10.7 percent below last year’s levels.

The national decline in home values coupled with shaky lending standards during the real estate boom are the driving forces behind rising mortgage defaults and foreclosures. They have spurred a credit crisis that has shaken Wall Street to its core and caused the Bush administration to propose a $700 billion financial industry bailout.

Yun said the trade group is sending a letter to Congress in support of the rescue plan. While buyers are pouncing on lower prices — especially in places like California, Florida and Nevada — sales are sluggish in formerly stable markets like the Pacific Northwest and Charlotte, N.C., he added.

Stocks fail to sustain advance on Buffett-Goldman

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080924/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street

NEW YORK - Financial markets turned lower again Wednesday, with stocks mostly declining after a short-lived pop on investor Warren Buffett’s decision to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The credit markets showed added strain as investors await news about the government’s plan to rescue banks from crippling debt.

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Tuesday it was investing at least $5 billion in Goldman — a move Wall Street took as sign of support for the independent investment bank model. Besides buying $5 billion in preferred stock, Berkshire also got warrants to buy another $5 billion in Goldman’s common stock.

Goldman Sachs also said it will sell $5 billion worth of common stock to the public; the company and Morgan Stanley earlier this week were granted approval to become bank holding companies, which would help them strengthen their balance sheets.

Though Buffett’s move appeared to soothe some investors, it didn’t alleviate concerns about the effectivenes of any government bailout and about the health of the broader economy. It could also lead to new questions from lawmakers for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs. He and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are appearing before Congress for a second day Wednesday to brief lawmakers on a $700 billion bailout measure for financial services firms.

Their appearance on Capitol Hill Tuesday unnerved investors, who questioned whether lawmakers were beginning to doubt the necessity and form of the government bailout.

The waiting was clearly wearing on the credit markets, raising concern again about liquidity.

Demand for short-term government Treasuries increased as investors again sought safe places to keep cash. The yield on the 3-month Treasury bill, considered the safest short-term financial asset, was at 0.41 percent early Wednesday, down from 0.79 percent late Tuesday. Last week, demand spiked so high that the3-month bill’s yield briefly dipped into negative territory; investors were so focused on putting their money in safe assets that they have been willing to accept very little or even negative returns.

In other Treasury trading, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.75 percent from 3.80 percent late Tuesday.

In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 30.67, or 0.28 percent, to 10,823.50. The Dow is down more than 500 points, or about 4.7 percent, for the week.

Broader stock indicators were mixed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.17, or 0.10 percent, to 1,189.39, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 9.15, or 0.42 percent, to 2,162.48.

The dollar, whose struggles earlier this week contributed to extreme volatility in other markets, was mixed, falling against the euro but rising against the Japanese yen. Meanwhile, gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.97 to $108.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Investors appeared unfazed by a larger-than-expected drop in sales of existing homes in August; their focus remained on the bailout. The National Association of Realtors said sales fell by 2.2 percent; sales had been expected to fall by 1.6 percent, according to economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR. The number of unsold homes on the market dropped by 7 percent from a record set in July. It marked the steepest drop in inventory since December 2006.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.20 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.17 percent, Germany’s DAX index slipped 0.16 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.30 percent.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 153.6 million shares.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 3.65, or 0.51 percent, to 705.54.

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