There is no time like the present to make changes to your Oklahoma mortgage loan, changes that could save you hundreds of dollars this year. You may already realize that you can save a lot in interest by refinancing your loan into one with a lower rate, due to the historically low current mortgage rates. You may also know that if you have paid down your home balance and acquired 20% equity in your property, you can save hundreds by canceling your private mortgage insurance policy ”PMI”. If you have an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) that will be resetting this year, you may also know that refinancing into a fixed rate loan could save you from the impending “payment shock.” Even knowing all this, depending on your situation, there may be other valuable tips that can help you have a more productive mortgage this year.

If you do not have a fixed rate mortgage or a traditional ARM, you may have an option ARM loan that is not a very common loan in today’s mortgage market. This type of a loan allows you to decide between four different payment amounts each month for a certain amount of time. It may be tempting to stick with the lowest payment option, but if you can at all afford it, try to make the monthly payment that would allow you to pay off your mortgage in 30 years. If you can’t make that payment every time this year, at least try to make the interest-only payment during those months that you cannot make the 30-year payment option. If you consistently make the minimum payment option, not only will you be making no contribution to your loan’s principal, but you will not be covering the monthly interest charges and the negative balance gets added to your loan total. This means your loan balance is actually increases, instead of decreasing each time you make the minimum payment! With today’s real estate property values decreasing due to the high amount of foreclosures & un-employment, If you are planning on staying in your home for many more years you should consider simply refinancing into a 30 or 15 year fixed rate mortgage loan to avoid the temptation to make the minimum payment.

No matter what type of Oklahoma mortgage loan you have, it is often a good idea to make at least one extra payment to principle to further pay down the balance on your home loan. In fact, if you can consistently make one extra payment a year towards the principle balance on your loan, you will be able to pay off a 30-year mortgage loan in only 25 years, and in the process you will save yourself thousands in interest charges over the life of the loan.

Another tip is to consider the lifestyle changes you expect this year. If you are adding a new family member to your household this year, whether it be a new baby or an aging relative, you may need to get a cash-out refinance or a home equity loan in order to add on that new room or make necessary repairs or remodeling. If you have a child leaving for college this year or simply moving out, you may want to make a financial plan to throw more money toward your mortgage than you could have realistically done before. Another common reason that home owners obtain a cash-out mortgage refinance is to do some debt-consolidation mortgage.
These types of mortgages help homeowners lower their monthly bills by taking all of their current loans and rolling them into one. This means that multiple loans are replaced with a single loan and that single loan usually becomes due over a longer period of time at a lower interest rate, therefore lowering the amount due per month drastically. This also makes it easier for homeowners to keep track of their bills with one easy payment. If you have credit cards, a car loan, and a student loan, it can become difficult to keep track of due dates. After consolidating your loans you no longer have to worry about keeping track of multiple due dates as well.

Every homeowner’s mortgage situation is unique, but regardless of your particular home loan type, you should take some time to sit down and evaluate how your mortgage is working for you. Making some small changes may net you hundreds in savings this year!!

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If you have been looking into buying a home or refinancing your current Mortgage in Oklahoma, you may have heard the term “15-year Mortgage” thrown around. While most Home Loans in Oklahoma are paid back over the course of 30 years, for those with the financial ability and budgeting skills, a 15-year fixed rate mortgage may be a much better option in the long run.

A 15-year loan is just what it sounds like: a home loan that must be repaid back within a 15 year period. It has a interest rate that is fixed throughout the course of the loan. Because it has to be repaid twice as fast as a 30-year mortgage, the monthly payments will be greater on a 15-year loan.

While this may sound too expensive for you to afford, you should realize that because the loan is shorter, you will be able to obtain a lower interest rate on the 15-year mortgage than you would on a 30-year mortgage in Oklahoma. This means you will pay less interest over the life of the loan since the term is shorter and because of the lower rate. This lower rate may help offset the higher monthly mortgage cost, but in most cases even with the rate decrees the monthly payment on the 15 years is higher.

For example, let’s compare the difference in payments and interest between a 30-year $100,000 fixed rate loan at 4.5% and a 15-year $100,000 fixed rate loan at 3.875%. For the 30-year loan, your monthly payment would be $506.94. You would pay $733.44 a month with a 15-year loan. In terms of interest over the course of the loan, with the 30-year loan you would end up paying $82,404, whereas you would only pay $32,192 in interest with a 15-year loan. That is a savings of $50,212!

Plus you would own your home free and clear at the end of those 15 years. Can you imagine the freedom? What would it be like to have no more monthly mortgage payments? For some, the savings benefit is definitely worth the higher monthly payment.

Consider another benefit: With a fifteen-year Oklahoma mortgage loan you will be building the home equity much quicker than you would with a 30-year loan. This is because your initial payments go mostly to interest, but because the interest on a 15-year loan is so much lower and the payments you are making are greater, more of your money goes toward paying down the principal balance thus increasing your equity. If you decide to sell the house before your fifteen years are up, you will have more equity to put towards your next purchase.

Perhaps you might think that you could do just as well by taking out a 30-year mortgage and making an additional $225 payment to principle each month. This is an option to consider for borrowers that don’t want to be obligated to make a higher payment each month. While this option won’t give you the ability to pay off the loan in exactly 15 years it will get you close, in most cases the home would be paid off in 17 to18 years if you followed the extra payment schedule for the life of the loan. But doing it this will not get you a lower interest rate, and the savings won’t be as significant over the life of the loan.

If you think this Oklahoma mortgage program sounds like a good fit for your needs, talk with a mortgage professional to discuss your options. For as much as you would save, it is definitely worth exploring!

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918-459-6530

According to a recent New York Times article from 06-29-2011 pretty much everyone agrees it’s a good idea for home buyers to put some of their own money down when borrowing to buy a house. Having a stake in the property, the thinking goes, encourages homeowners to keep making payments on the mortgage.
But how much of a down payment is reasonable? Ten percent? Twenty? Five?

That question is part of a debate in Congress and among a cluster of federal regulatory agencies as they try to craft new rules for mortgage lenders following the housing debacle.

As part of the financial reforms mandated last year by the Dodd-Frank law, the agencies, including the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, among others, must set criteria for what constitutes a reasonably safe, plain-vanilla mortgage.

Lenders issuing such mortgages — what are to be called “qualified residential mortgages” — will be able to sell them to investors and avoid retaining any of the risk associated with a default of the loan on their own books. Loans that don’t meet the new standards won’t be considered qualified and will be considered riskier so the lender will have to retain 5 percent ownership. The goal is to encourage banks to thoroughly vet a borrower’s ability to repay the loan. In other words, the banks must have “skin in the game” for loans that don’t meet the standards by setting aside extra capital for possible defaults.

The agencies proposed requiring qualified mortgages to have a down payment of 20 percent, but that idea provoked a firestorm of opposition from an unusual alliance of banks, real estate agents and consumer housing advocates. The Center for Responsible Lending, which has been vociferous in urging financial reforms to protect borrowers, argued that 20 percent down, or even 10 percent down, would price many homeowners out of the mortgage market. Many creditworthy borrowers would find it difficult to meet the down payment rule and would end up paying more for their loans because lenders would boost interest rates on their loans to cover their extra costs, the center argued.

The group’s Web site has a chart showing the length of time it would take borrowers of different occupations to save enough for a 10 percent down payment. A public school teacher at the median salary of $33,530, for instance, would take 14 years to save enough cash to buy a $173,000 home.
Kathleen Day, spokeswoman for the center, said a borrower’s ability to repay a loan should be determined by thorough underwriting, that is, an assessment of risk through examining a borrower’s credit history, income and debt, by the lender.
“We’re not advocating for zero percent down,” says Kathleen Day, spokeswoman for the center. “We think down payments are good. But we think the market should set them, based on the underwriting.”
(Loans insured by the Federal Housing Agency, which can be obtained with small down payments, are exempt from the qualified mortgage mandates.)
Due to an outpouring of concern from the industry and consumer groups, as well as members of Congress, the regulatory agencies have extended the public comment period on the change to Aug. 1.

What do you think? Is it reasonable to set a minimum down payment for home loans?

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