Home Mortgage Rates & Blog

Do you need a loan program to help you or your clients realize the dream of home ownership?

I have a great program available, a gift up to $12,500, for down payment assistance and for help with closing costs.

It is an easy loan process, unlike other programs I have used in the past, and it is not limited to first time home buyers.

The program has an income limit of $84,180 for most Austin-area counties and a purchase price limit of $250,200.

If you want more information please call me or click here for more information.

I hope to help you buy your home.

Giuliana in David Weekley’s Model Home

Our one-year old daughter, Giuliana, met Santa yesterday at the David Weekley Homes showroom. 🙂  (She’s shown here staring at the living room of their beautiful model home.)   They build a high quality home that is both beautiful & has a great cost per square foot.   I offer construction loans with rates starting at 3.625%.

Great news for home buyers! FHA has new loan limits starting January 1, 2014. The loan limit has increased from $288,750 to $305,900. This means you can now buy a house priced at $316,990 with only 3.5% down in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, & Caldwell counties.

It’s becoming more apparent that the economy is slowing slightly now that the government shutdown is over. While not good news overall, it has been quite favorable for mortgage rates.

Mortgage rates also benefited from the agreement in D.C. because investors now think that the Fed will wait longer to begin to taper its bond purchase program due to the uncertainty baked into the agreement (will we go through this again in only 3 months?).

Net, net, it’s a great time to buy or refinance.

Read more detail here.

I hope you are enjoying the beautiful Fall weather!

This morning’s Jobless Claims numbers were lower than expected. While that is good news and means that less people are unemployed than expected, it does temporarily have an adverse impact on rates. Another factor that caused rates to rise slightly today is a growing consensus that the Fed will reduce the stimulus. Both of these things mean a stronger economy is in our future, but that does mean slightly higher rates. I do think permanently higher rates are still months away. I am hoping for a rebound in rates soon…maybe even tomorrow!

I came across this listing today and thought it was pretty neat that you could buy this much square footage for the price in Lakeway. What a great option to be live in an exemplary school district at a bargain. In an area with multi-million dollar homes all around I was pleasantly surprised and wanted to share the listing.

This would also be a great cash flow positive investment property. Personally, I want my parents to buy it as a second home until my dad is ready to retire! I know our daughter would love Nanny and Papi to live nearby 🙂

Here is a great article from CNN. If the economy continues to improve as anticipated, mortgage rates will keep inching up. Freddie Mac expects the 30 year fixed rate to reach 4.7% by the end of 2014. Global Insight forecasts that rates won’t hit 6% until 2017.

All in all this is great news. We should continue to have rates that are considered “historical low rates” for the next few years. Still a great time to buy, build, renovate, or refinance!

Yesterday afternoon President Barack Obama talked about the U.S. housing market. In a nut shell he supports reform efforts in Congress that would end Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “as we know them.” He did emphasize that any restructuring needs to provide adequate opportunity for first time home buyers.

What does this mean to you as a home buyer? For the short-term, nothing. If Congress follows through on plans to shut down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, then interest rates will probably rise long term. The question is how much higher? The general consensus is they will rise, but moderately.

Now is still a great time to buy and take advantage of historically low mortgage rates.