Insured mortgage defaults top 80000 in October Reuters - 30 minutes ago That is up from 59308 a year earlier, and surpassed the previous record of 76776 set in September. On the other hand, mortgages brought up to date totaled ...
Mortgage insurers see defaults rise again in October MarketWatch - The association of the largest mortgage insurers said Monday that 80071 mortgages with insurance went into default last month, or became 60 days past due, ...
Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: mortgage + 15year + better Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/4/2008)
Are some loans too small to re-fi? Boston Globe, United States - I'd like to go to a 15 year mortgage. I max out my 403(b), my salary is $63000 and I have a couple of extra dollars available each month. Am I better off ...
Is down-payment gift taxable income? Boston Globe, United States - However, in general, unless you have a high-interest-rate mortgage, I still believe that you are better off keeping that loan on the books. ...
Credit crunch a year on: the losers BBC News, UK - Aug 3, 2008 ... weren't much better off as the last 100% mortgage bit the dust, average two-year fixed-rate deals hit 7% and new mortgage lending fell to a 15-year low. ...
Annus horribilis The Age, Australia - Aug 1, 2008 Mortgage interest rates were about 3 percentage points lower than now. The sharemarket was about 20% higher. The papers were full of stories about booming ...
Some buyers are getting more house for their money Providence Journal, RI - Aug 1, 2008 In a short sale, the lender accepts less than is owed on the mortgage just to let a sale go through. For lenders, this can be a better choice than the ...
As Financials Go, So Go Stock Markets Seeking Alpha, NY - Aug 3, 2008 US mortgage rates also declined, with the 15-year fixed rate dropping by 7 basis points to 5.97% and the 5-year ARM 9 basis points higher at 5.95%. ...
Have a Personal Finance Question? Chicago Sun-Times, United States - Jul 23, 2008 I have a 15 year mortgage at 4.75% with about 10 more years to go. I have about $200000 in equity in the house, also have a long term care insurance policy, ...
Who?s Got Financial Wherewithal? KCI Investing, VA - Jul 25, 2008 The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage came up to 6.59 percent from 6.22 percent; 15-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 6.1 percent from 5.74 ...WB - BAC
Daily Market Commentary for July 30, 2008 Inside Futures, IL - Jul 30, 2008 The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages stood at 6.46%, down from the previous week's 6.59% and was 5.98% on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, ...CF - ADP - FNM
Source: Google News
Pricing commercial mortgages and their mortgage-backed securities - JB Kau, DC Keenan, WJ Muller, JF Epperson - The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 1990 - Springer ... condition specifies that at the end of the 15-year term of ... Of course, default of
a mortgage is seen as a ... may be cases where the issuer is better off continuing ...
[BOOK]The automatic millionaire - D Bach - 2004 - bizsum.com ...Better yet, it is already a step to start getting rich. ... Banks love this type of mortgage because they get rich off this. ? 15-Year fixed rate. ...
[PDF]Effect on Net Worth of 15-and 30-Year Mortgage Term - JR Aulerich - Financial Counseling and Planning, 2004 - afcpe.org ... bracket or higher, the 30-year mortgage would be preferred, but if the borrower
is in the 25 percent or less tax bracket the 15-yearmortgage is better (Table 6 ...
Rental Housing and the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 WB Brueggeman, JD Fisher, JJ Stern - Public Finance Review, 1982 - pfr.sagepub.com ... Conference on Taxes, Mortgage Instruments and Housing for helpful comments used
in ... Available only if 15-year capital recovery period chosen. differences in
[PDF]Is a 30-Year Mortgage Preferable to a 15-Year Mortgage? - PM Basciano, JM Grayson, J Walton - Financial Counseling and Planning, 2006 - afcpe.org ... investment option. Conversely, a negative NB would indicate a better financial
outcome associate with a 15-yearmortgage alternative. ...
[CITATION] 15-Year vs. 30-Year Mortgage: Which Is the Better Option? DC Goff, DR Cox - JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL PLANNING-DENVER-, 1998 - INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS -
[CITATION] Cashing in on Mortgage Rates EM Sharkey, GR Guerin - ABAJ, 1986 - HeinOnline
Source: Google Scholar
Is A 15-Year Mortgage Better Than A 30-Year Mortgage?
Q We are in the process of refinancing our home mortgage. The lender is really pushing us to switch to a 15-year mortgage instead of a 30-year loan. The big benefits, she says, are a one-fourth percent lower interest rate and a savings of thousands of interest dollars. But our monthly payment will be about 20 percent higher. Which type of mortgage do you recommend?
A: (1) I hope you have decided to take a fixed-rate mortgage. Although the low teaser or sucker interest rates on adjustable-rate mortgages are extremely attractive at around 5 percent, they only last for a few months. Yes, you can find ARMs with interest rates fixed for three, five or even seven years, but you then run the risk that interest rates might be sky-high at the time of adjustment or the balloon payment. An ARM makes sense only if you are absolutely certain you won't keep your home more than a few years.
(2) Today's fixed-interest-rate mortgages are bargains at around 8 percent. But please be very careful about taking a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage. Yes, you will save thousands of dollars of interest, compared to a 30-year mortgage. But you will lose most of your mortgage interest tax deduction after about 11 years because then the majority of your monthly payments go toward non-deductible principal. This lost deduction can cost you thousands of extra tax dollars during the 15 years when you won't have any mortgage interest tax deduction.
3) I recently learned about 40 percent of today's home loans are for 15 years. The government thanks you for that because it means these homeowners will be paying higher income taxes when they pay off their mortgages. Instead of taking a 15-year mortgage, which lenders love because they reduce their risk by getting their money back faster, I suggest you take a 30-year mortgage. Then, if you wish, you can pretend it is a 15-year mortgage and pay it off as if it were a 15-year loan. But if you find the 20 percent greater payments are too high, then you can revert to the lower original 30-year payment rate.
Q: I think the newspaper made a mistake. A few weeks ago you said a home seller must defer their home sale profit tax if they buy a replacement principal residence of equal or greater cost within 24 months before or after the sale. Didn't you intend to say "may" defer the tax rather than "must"?
A: No. Newspapers never make mistakes. Just joking. But my article about the "rollover residence replacement rule" of Internal Revenue Code 1034 was correct.
Home sellers who buy a replacement principal residence costing at least as much as the adjusted (net) sales price of the home they sold MUST defer their profit tax if the replacement home is bought within 24 months before or after the residence sale.
Incidentally, it doesn't matter how much cash was received from the home sale or how much cash is reinvested in the replacement residence.
Q: After we signed the sales contract to buy our home with a VA mortgage, the VA changed the rules which previously prohibited the buyer from paying the VA loan fees. In our sales contract, the seller agreed to pay our loan fee. Now she says we should pay our own VA loan fee. But we don't think that is fair because our VA loan has not yet been approved, so our VA interest rate cannot be locked in and we might have to pay a higher interest rate than we were expecting. Can the seller refuse to pay our VA loan fees?
A: The new VA rules don't specify what is to happen to transactions which were in process at the time of the changes. As you know, the new VA rules now allow VA buyers to pay their own loan fees and the VA interest rate will no longer be fixed by the VA.
Since the seller's price for the house reflected her anticipation of paying the VA loan fees, it seems only fair she should do so, since you now have the risk of paying a market-rate VA loan fee rather than one which is fixed by the VA.
(Copyright 1992, Tribune Media Services Inc.) Bob Bruss' column appears Sundays in the Home/Real Estate section. Letters and comments should be sent to Bob Bruss, Seattle Times Newsroom, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111.
Copyright (c) 1992 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.
Comment by Christopher Whalen