Mortgage Blog

The interest rate went up about 0.5% to 0.75% for most programs. And though the transaction volume reduced a lot for the following reasons:
1)Some borrowers hope the rate will go back lower to the previous levels.
2)It is holiday season, and some borrowers want to think about the refinance strategy after the new year or after the ARM reset notice.
3)Hard to make decisions when the ARM rate still have fixed rate for a few more years.

 But still I had a few transactions:
1)Borrower changed the loan program to 10 yr fixed and we locked 3% for no closing cost. Which was not bad.
2)Another borrower did a cash-out refinance for the rental, and locked 10/1 ARM 4.125% with no closing cost at all.
3)Two loans will be closed for 1031 exchanges.
4)One loan in the pipeline for the 1031 exchanges(just entered the contract).
5)Two loans in the pipeline for 1031 exchanges(sold one property, purchase two)
6)One loan purchased with cash, tried to do the cash-out refinance right after the purchase.
7)Two inquiries for the loans same scenarios as 6), but would like to wait for better rates.

So when people get used to high rate, smart investors started doing something, and it is never too late. I actually asked them why they wanted to do a refinance now? The answer is that they wanted to lock a rate. If the rate goes higher in the future, then they got a relatively good rate. If the rate goes lower after 6 months, they can do refinance again.