New at Empire Real Estate....Me!!!!

Today...was my first day at Empire Real Estate. Just a little about Empire. Empire is a local real estate brokerage founded in 2002 by 23 agents here in Danville and has since grown to nearly 100 associates who work from two beautiful offices, one in Danville, that's where I'm residing and one in downtown Walnut Creek. Empire is also a founding member of the Artisan Group comprised of the top local brokerages from Napa to Tahoe to the Bay Area. I'm super excited at this new opportunity and looking forward to establishing myself in the Beautiful East Bay area.

OK, enough about my new gig. Let's talk rates. I didn't think mortgages would be as cheap as they were last spring ever again. Boy I was wrong. The 4% mortgages that had everyone so excited last April and May are back in a big way. The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan, (the most popular way to finance a home) slipped to 5.25% in our latest weekly survey of major lenders taken Sept. 30. That is the lowest it's been since April, when the average rate plunged to 5.13%. Call me and I will refer you to a lender that is offering 30-year, fixed-rate loans for as little as 4.75%, with no points and fees of $1,500 or less. That means your principal and interest payments will be just $522 a month for every $100,000 you borrow.

Pay a point or two, and you'll be able to cut that to 4.375% and lower your payments to $500 a month for every $100,000 you borrow. And these traditional, fixed-rate mortgages are as safe and straight-forward as they come. You don't have to risk your financial future on an interest-only mortgage or adjustable-rate mortgage to get these record-low rates and payments. Nor will you have to worry about interest rates going up, principal payments kicking in or any other nasty surprises a few years down the road.

By any historical standard, anytime you can get a 30-year, fixed-rate loan for less than 6.5%, you've gotten a good deal. Right now, you can get a great deal. While I think mortgage rates will remain very affordable throughout the fall, there's good reason to believe they'll start rising this winter, what goes down eventually must go up...rate wise that is!

Over the next few weeks, the Federal Reserve will begin phasing out its campaign to flood the mortgage market with money and drive interest rates down to help the struggling housing markets and economy. To do that, it has been purchasing about $1.25 trillion worth of home loans made by commercial banks and finance companies at rates lower than private investors would usually expect. But as the Fed buys fewer and fewer mortgages between now and the end of March, private investors will have to pick up the slack. They'll demand better returns, which should push interest rates back up to more normal levels. So if you were putting off buying or refinancing a home, now's the time to act.

You've probably heard that banks and mortgage companies have tightened their requirements for getting a mortgage after unwisely lowering their standards during the housing boom. They have. But that return to reasonable underwriting standards is a good thing and shouldn't stop the great majority of borrowers from getting the loans they want.

You'll have the best chance of getting a low rate with low fees if you: Have an average credit score. That's a FICO score of 720 to 730. If you have below-average credit, you should probably pursue an FHA or VA loan. Borrowers with lower credit scores can increase the odds of having their application approved by getting the government to guarantee the loan's repayment. Also, be able to fully document your income, assets and debts.

No one can predict where rates are going to go in the future, but it seems this is the time to take advantage of rates that are good for not only buyers, but home owners wishing to refinance their existing home loan as well. More to come...