It’s that time of year where we seem to get a lot of new changes in the mortgage world and this year there are some good updates!
FHA: this is huge news! FHA is lowering the monthly mortgage insurance premium by 30 basis points. This means for most people your payment will drop by $50-60/month! With minimum down, your mortgage insurance rate goes from .85 to .55. If you are putting more down (at least 5%), it drops from .80 to .50. Definitely good news to help lower your monthly payment! This is effective now!
VA: The VA funding fee is also dropping. The amount depends on how much you are putting down and if you have used your VA eligibility before. For first time users with zero down, the fee is going from 2.30% to 2.15%. This fee is usually added to your mortgage, but it will help lower your payment with a lower mortgage amount. This change is effective for VA loans closing after April 7, 2023. Remember if you have any VA related disability, you may have your VA funding fee waived. You can also apply for reduced property taxes, contact your county office to get that started.
Credit Reports: When mortgage companies pull your credit, the credit companies sell the information – not your credit report but just that you are pulling credit and possible in the market to get a new mortgage. There are some suggestions to limit the number of phone calls you get! The first one is to “opt out” and put your phone number on the do not call list. The Opt Out takes your name off the offers of credit or insurance. The website for that is http://www.optoutprescreen.com. The Do Not Call registry is suppose to stop telemarketing calls. That website is http://www.donotcall.gov. If you choose to freeze your credit report so no one can pull your credit, we will need you to open it up before we pull your credit. There are times we may pull a “softpull” that doesn’t affect your score but gives us an idea of what we can approve you for. Then you have time to “opt out” before we pull a full credit report. Remember it does take a couple weeks for the opt out to take effect.
Buy now, refinance later! With interest rates changing daily and usually trending up, more people are questioning waiting to buy. We are offering a chance to buy now, refi later – if you buy and close by May 25, 2023, I will give you a certificate for a refinance with no lender fees. This could save you about $1500 on a refinance if rates drop before 2025. There is also a chance you get an appraisal waiver that could save you more money! With home prices expected to continue to increase, this gives you a chance to get in now and then refi down the road with reduced fees.
If you have any questions on any of this, please reach out! I’m happy to go over the recent changes and see how they may affect you. Mortgage rates are all over the place but it’s still a great time to buy!
Leslie Vanderwerf, NMLS ID#335509, CrossCountry Mortgage LLC, An Equal Housing Lender, NMLS#3029 – Email – Website
