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Finance and Refinance, Laws & News

Strange Mortgage Indexes Continue The Housing Market Hold-Down

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Many homeowners with variable mortgages have watched their monthly payments increase or stay high even as they have dropped for others. Why is this? The answer points toward the obscure indexes used to calculate those payments moving in unexpected ways. These indexes behave in strange ways, which have controlled monthly payments on more than $100 billion of variable mortgages, means that many homeowners are paying as much as 25% more than homeowners with similar loans. The higher payments, which can total $269 a month on a $250,000 loan, come as many homeowners are struggling to avoid default.

Few homeowners have heard of or understand these indexes, which have acronyms like Cosi, Codi and Cofi, along with the better-known Libor. And few know how they are calculated or what they mean for borrowers. The mortgage loans are pegged to the indexes because the loans, unliked fixed-rate loans, adjust to changing market moves. Learn More

February 9, 2010 · Tagged with , , , ,

Finance and Refinance, General Info

How do I look up what my mobile home is worth?

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In order to determine this value you must first identify what you actually have.

Do you have a manufactured home,mobile home or modular home. It sounds like you have either a manufactured or an RV/mobile home. What year was it made? Prior to 76 the value drops off the map as there is no available financing for it outside of creating a note on it and selling the note.

Read More . . .

December 28, 2009 · Tagged with , , , , ,

Finance and Refinance, Laws & News

Why to Avert a Foreclosure on your Mobile Home

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Mobile Home owners often fail to see that the consequences of a foreclosure are very unlike those of a Manufactured Home short-sale. A short sale might be one great alternative deserving serious consideration.

December 3, 2009 · Tagged with , , , ,

Finance and Refinance

Now is the Time to Buy Your First Mobile Home

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There are many reasons to buy your first home now, and purchasing a manufactured home can be more affordable than renting an apartment. The first reason to buy a mobile home is low mortgage rates. If you have good credit, and a down payment, you can get into a manufactured home for less than renting in most cities. Another reason to consider buying a mobile home right now is the state of the market. Prices on homes are hitting the bottom of the curve, many economists predict. So, if you buy now, there is a good chance that the property and home will increase in value over the next few years. Of course, it is always a good idea to invest in a home rather than rent because your money is going towards purchasing an asset.

Mobile home financing is difficult to come by compared to a year ago, but there are still options available. We can tell you in a short phone conversation how likely you are going to be approved, and at what rate. You’ve got nothing to lose by calling to find out if buying a manufactured home is a smart idea. Getting financing can be scary, but with seasoned mobile home loan experts behind you there is nothing to worry about.

August 31, 2009 · Tagged with , , , , , ,

Finance and Refinance, General Info

Lenders Profit as Mortgage Market Changes

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An Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) spokesperson said that several independent mortgage companies made extreme changes in their loan product offerings. This includes an increase in writing FHA loans, a category which increased to 45 percent of loans in 2008 from 10 percent the year before. Lenders reported that they closed an average of 56.6 percent of all loan applications.

The Fed has been providing liquidity to the mortgage market in their purchase of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). Between August 13 and August 19, the Federal Reserve purchased a gross total of $26.640 billion agency MBS.

The Fed purchased an average of $5.00 billion per day, up from last week’s $4.08 billion per day. This doubled the average daily originator selling, illustrating that the Fed continues to provide a generous supply of liquidity to mortgage bankers looking to hedge their pipelines of committed and uncommitted loans.

We can only hope that the evolving mortgage market swings back to more responsible lending practices, especially in the mobile home market. Manufactured homes ar very difficult to finance and refinance currently, which is a sobering fact among the retired and elderly in America, because they are the majority of Americans being targeted as “risky” by lenders.

Banks were irresponsible with loose lending practices such as “stated income,” but now they are too tight in their lending procedures. Now, there are so few programs, that the entire mobile home mortgage market is at a standstill. With their retirement only a fraction of what it used to be, retired Americans cannot even pull equity out of their manufactured homes. This is because their homes have dropped in value, and lenders look for any reason to decline their loan application.

The moral of the story is that banks were too loose, now their too tight. And America is left asking: WILL LENDERS EVER GET IT RIGHT?

August 20, 2009 · Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Finance and Refinance

Mortgage Rates Hit 6-Week Low

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“The market is finally turning the corner after a severe three-year slump” said BMO analyst Sal Guatieri before the release. Many are expecting the fourth consecutive monthly increase in home sales. This increase would be the longest string increased home sales in five years.

Average rates for a 30-year mortgage fell to a 6-week low at 5.15%, which is increasing demand for purchases, refinancing, and new mortgages to all advance. The manufactured home market generally follows the housing market trends, but has also been known to stray.

Keep a tight watch on your mobile home financing and refinancing options by coming to our blog, and also feel free to call us at (800) 882-1999 if you have any specific questions about financing or refinancing your manufactured home. We’ve been doing this for 28 years, so we kinda know what we’re talking about.

August 20, 2009 · Tagged with , , , , , ,

Finance and Refinance, General Info

Home Appraisers on the Hot Seat

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Appraisals are supposed to shield manufactured home buyers from paying too much and lenders from overestimating the value of their collateral. If appraisals come in too high, mobile home buyers may overpay, making defaults more likely. If they are too low, it becomes hard to sell or refinance the manufactured home. Many real-estate agents and builders say that the pendulum has swung too far toward caution, and that undervalued appraisals threaten to prevent or prolong any recovery in the housing market.

In addition, to make a living in these difficult times, appraisers are driving longer distances to handle more assignments. This raises the qurestion: Does the appraiser even know enough about the mobile home parks to accurately assess the value of the manufactured homes. This has implications for both home buyers and owners, because if the home is undervalued they will havea very difficult time refinancing their manufactured home loan.

August 18, 2009 · Tagged with , , ,

Finance and Refinance

Banks Remain Tight on Lending Standards

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Lenders are Tight on Home Loans

Lenders are Tight on Home Loans

“Domestic banks indicated that they continued to tighten standards and terms over the past three months on all major types of loans to businesses and households,” the Federal  Reserve’s survey of senior loan officers said.

Looking ahead, the Fed said most banks plan to keep lending standards tighter than average levels over the past decade, but that should be expected given the reputation lenders made for themselves leading up to the subprime crisis.

This is definitely expected, however very unwelcome. These tight standards that banks now hold themselves to can only be compared to a farmer that depletes all the resources from the soil as fast as possible, then blames the grocery store for their loss in livelihood. The banks have been taking supreme advantage of the loose legislation for half a decade, and they are very irresponsible for doing so. Now, the hens have come home to roost, and the banks are acting irresponsibly in the other direction. Lenders are finding phantom reasons to decline even the lowest risk loans.

In an economy that the banks are majorly responsible for ruining, they are now proceeding to decline America by acting reactively and not responsibly. A retired American with a good bank account, credit score and income cannot get a loan to purchase a manufactured home, even though Berkshire Hatheway recently came out and said that they are a lower risk than a traditional home loan.

Banks and their irresponsible tight lending practices are sending ripples throughout an already brittle economy, and the ripples are effecting the working and retired alike.

August 18, 2009 · Tagged with , , , , , ,

Finance and Refinance

Manufactured Home Finance or Refinance: Get a Credit Report

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Credit Report and Manufactured Home Financing

Credit Report and Manufactured Home Financing

If you are considering buying or refinancing a manufactured home, make sure you get a copy of your credit report and review it for its accuracy. It is possible that there are errors on your credit report, and if they aren’t corrected before you apply for a manufactured home loan, the errors can derail the entire process.  Each year as a consumer, you can request a free copy of your credit report from each of the credit reporting agencies.   You can contact them via phone to request or on line by visiting www.Experian.com, www.Equifax.com and www.Transunion.com.  Please note, these reports will NOT provide a credit score for free, only a credit report. In order to secure a par interest rate you must have a FICO score of 740 or higher. If you are looking to use FHA financing, expect the rate to be higher than conventional financing.

This morning, we are seeing the best mortgage rates of the last several weeks.  Each time rates fall below 5%, they have not remained there for very long. The last time we saw 4.875%, it was available for all of one day!  This has been a very consistent pattern since early Summer. As such, I will caution you to not get too greedy. Can rates move lower?  Absolutely, but there is much more room above for rates to go higher. Rates move much faster upward than they move lower as lenders are reluctant to pass along lower rates. If you can lock a rate today under 5% on your mobile home financing or refinance your manufactured home loan you might want to take advantage.

August 17, 2009 · Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Finance and Refinance

The Housing Market as it Relates to Refinancing your Mobile Home

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Because the interest rates are very low, now is a very good time to refinance your manufactured home loan to lower your interest rate or lower your monthly payments. Now is generally not the time to take equity out of your mobile home or site-built home, because the housing prices have hit a low point. “We’re starting to see signs of stabilization in the mortgage market,” says Jim lockhart. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have refinance almost 1.9 million mortgage loans. Housing Prices are beginning to look as though they have hit a bottom, and this usually means that they will slowly start to climb again.

August 14, 2009 · Tagged with , ,

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