You have most likely heard about the $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit made available to anyone purchasing a primary residence that has not owned a home in the last three years.  This program has helped many people "get off the fence" and purchase their first home.

Originally this program had an expiration date of November 30, 2009, which meant that the transaction had to close previous to this date.  This is still the case... however, there is a proposed bill currently awaiting approval that would effectively extend this $8,000 tax credit through April 30, 2010.

It is important to note that this bill has not passed the house yet, however most of the "experts" say that they anticipate this bill to be signed into law sometime this week.  Our company  applauds this legislation as we feel that it is actually making a measurable impact & putting money back into consumer's pockets.

Another proposed addition to this new tax-credit extension is a $6,500 credit for CURRENT HOME OWNERS wanting to upgrade to a newer home.  It is currently proposed that if you've lived in your current home for 5 years or more and purchase a new home before the April 30th deadline, you'll be able to receive a $6,500 credit!  That should really help keep the positive housing news going.

Lastly, for those of you who haven't had a chance to tune into the Financial Insights radio program on 630 AM each weekday from 4:00-5:00 please do so.  Or, you can listen live on the web at http://www.kido.net/pages/main. We are privileged to have been invited as guests on the show and will be taking phone calls & discussing mortgage related topics this coming Thursday November 5th.  The phone number to call in is 208-342-6363. Call in, we'd love to hear from you.

Make it a great week!

Over the last three months we've had several calls from people just like you wanting to refinance, but because they're current appraised value is as high or higher than their current loan, there was nothing they could do.

That is until now!!  

Starting October 1st Freddie Mac will allow servicer to servicer refinances up to 125% loan-to-value!

What does this mean to you?  Well, chances are good that Freddie Mac owns your loan and if that's the case then you need to listen up close!

See, before now in order to participate in the REDICULOUSLY LOW interest rates you had to return to your current bank.  In a lot of cases, those banks were out of business or no longer originating any new loans...so you were basically out of luck!

Now, however we have a solution for you.

You need to immediately go to https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/ and check to see if Freddie Mac owns your mortgage.

If Freddie owns your mortgage and you're wanting to take advantage of interest rates currently as low as 4.75% then give me a call right away.

As always, these rates won't stick around long...maybe not even through the end of the day, which means if you don't act right now it could end up costing you thousands of dollars over the life of your loan.

I know, I know...you hear that line all the time, but in this case it's actually true.  

Did you know that a difference of only a half percent (.5) on a loan of $200,000 is a difference of nearly $23,000 over the life of your loan?  TWENTY-THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!  That's a new boat, or a couple trips to Europe or part of a college education!

Take advantage of these rates right now!  And if you think this could help a friend or neighbor then feel free to forward this message to them as well.

Let’s be honest, Most of us didn’t know this. We probably know, however, that during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards this week, Kanye West stormed on stage as Taylor Swift was receiving the Best Female Video award.

In reality, the news about the space shuttle is more relevant and should be more important to our future. But as normal people, we block out a lot of the information that can benefit us and latch on to what we find, or our friends find, interesting at the moment.

If you’re like me, you get tired and numb of all the numbers being thrown around. Anything political or financial puts a bad taste in your mouth and whether you really care about the MTV awards or not, it is more interesting although not more important at the moment.

Here's another tip that you'll probably gloss over unless it's relavant to you at this very moment.

I had a client ask me today if it made sense to buy their rate down since rates were already so low.  It's a great question and it honestly depends on each individual situation.

There is a formula we use to determine the "break even point" of the discount point buy down.  Here's the formula:

Total cost of the buy down / (Payment before the buydown - payment after buydown) = Number of months before you break even on the cost.

For example...let's say you were getting a $200,000 loan at 5.0% and your payment is $1,075.  You want to know if buying down your rate to 4.75% is a good deal.  The cost to buy the rate down is 0.75 points or $1,500.  Your payment at 4.75% will be $1,045 a month. 

Using our formula, if we take $1,500 / ($1,075 - $1,045) = 50 months.  This means that it will take you exactly 50 months (4 year and 2 months) before you even break even on the buy down.

So, does the buy down make sense?  Well, if you're only going to be in the house for two or three years then NO!  But if you're planning on being a "lifer" then it would make a big difference in your total out of pocket.

Have a similar question?  Shoot me a line or give me a ring.  I'd love to speak with you!