Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Facts On Jumbo Mortgage Loans

By Sarah Turner

The average price of a home in the United States is right around 300,000 dollars. When you apply for a mortgage to purchase a home around that average price, the general rules of mortgage loans apply. But what happens when the price of the home you want to purchase far exceeds the typical home price? Jumbo Mortgage loans are offered by banks for homes that exceed a certain price limit.

Expensive homes are typically harder to sell. For one, there are fewer buyers that fall into the category of qualifying for a high priced home purchase. Secondly, the people that do fall into that category sometimes have specific ideas about what they want their home to be like.

The more extravagant homes don't always appeal to a mass amount of people. For this reason, it takes more time to sell the homes. If during the time it takes to sell, the borrower defaults on the loan, than the bank has now assumed the responsibility for the house. Banks don't like to have foreclosed homes on their hands.

The first thing that is required of the borrower is to put down a large down payment. The typical ten to twenty percent down usually isn't enough to qualify.

Borrowers are required to put down a large down payment if they want to qualify for a jumbo mortgage. This way, even if the home loses value, the bank can still recoup some of that cost if the borrower defaults on the loan because they have the down payments. Depending on the mortgage climate, anywhere from twenty to fifty percent of the cost of the home is required for a down payment.

Closing costs on the loans are very high as well. Overall, this type of mortgage is really expensive. In the past, these types of mortgages were only needed for high-end luxury homes, but in recent years, housing prices have skyrocketed. Many people in areas like California and Washington D.C. were forced to become jumbo borrowers even though they were buying a modest home.

In February of 2008, as part of a stimulus package, President Bush signed off on temporarily increasing the jumbo mortgage limit to 729,750 dollars. This was an increase of 125 percent more than what the typically jumbo limit had been.

Even though banks can potentially make a lot of money on jumbo mortgages, they are still choosy about who they lend to. If you plan to buy an expensive home in the future, make sure you have a good credit score and plan to put down a large down payment. This will improve your chances of qualifying for a loan to purchase the home you want. - 15224

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