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RSSGwinnett County Mortgage Rates
Once you decide you are ready to buy a home, it is important to know what the mortgage rates are doing. If you have heard that mortgage rates are falling, perhaps it is worth your while to wait to see how low they go. When the Wall Street Journal says that mortgage rates are on the rise, it may be crucial to secure your mortgage while rates are still relatively low. Although most “experts” are simply just guessing what mortgage rates are going to do, there are a few factors that they look at. Once you know what those factors are, you won’t have to depend on others to decide when you should buy your new home.
The standard comparison that most brokers use to predict rate shifts is the 10-year Treasury note. If the note has been on the rise lately, so have mortgage rates. As the note yield declines, so do mortgage rates. Another way to predict rates is to compare the 10-year Treasury note to mortgage back securities (MBS) bonds. Typically these two rates are right in line with each other, but if one is significantly higher than the other then you know that rates are about to make a jump. An often-ignored factor in mortgage rates is the inflation rate. As inflation goes up, it represents the volatility of the economy. In a volatile lending environment mortgage companies raise rates to counteract the uncertainty of the economic climate.
Gwinnett County Home Equity Loans
If you are like the average American consumer, you have some debt that you are trying to pay off. Home equity loans have become a popular solution to pay off your debt at a low interest rate. There are just a few things you should remember when deciding to use your home to pay off other debt. Debt like credit cards and student loans are unsecured debt which means you put up no collateral to qualify for them. Once you pay off that debt with a home equity loan it is now secured by your home. This means that if you miss a payment or fall behind the bank can repossess your home. If there is any chance that you will not be able to make two house payments (because you should think of a home equity loan as another mortgage payment) then you should not use a home equity loan to pay off your unsecured debt. The worse they can do if you do not pay your credit card is charge you a late fee, but that is not nearly as bad as losing your home.
FHA Mortgage Loans in Gwinnett County
Since the sub-prime mortgage crisis, more consumers are having a difficult time qualifying for a mortgage from a bank. When you find yourself unable to secure a traditional mortgage, an FHA mortgage is your best option. To qualify for an FHA mortgage, you first have to have a solid 2-year employment record. You will not be a candidate for an FHA loan if you have had a foreclosure in the last three years, a bankruptcy in the last two years, or if you owe the IRS any money. The required down payment to qualify is only 3% and gift contributions are allowed. The FHA also requires that your potential mortgage payment not be more than 31% of your gross monthly income and your debt-to-income ratio cannot exceed 43% of that. These standards are far below those of conventional mortgages (from banks) and will help you buy the house of your dreams even if you have made a few mistakes in your past.