What is the correlation between credit scores and mortgage rates?

If it's low, do anything you can to make it better!

Does a low credit score really cause my mortgage rate to increase? And by how much?  The data is pulled by myFICO, a division of the Fair Isaac Corporation, with interest rates as of November 13, 2012.

FICO Score Mortgage Interest Rate
760-850       2.926 percent
700-759       3.148 percent
680-699       3.325 percent
660-679       3.539 percent
640-659       3.969 percent
620-639       4.515 percent

As you can see, a good credit score can definitely work in your favor. Raising your credit score is a trick and there is a way to do it most effectively and quickly.  I can help with guidance and suggestions on how to do it.


Here is an excellent place to begin repairing your credit: 
I recommend credit monitoring 

Utah Housing can help more home buyers

Utah Housing offers a "Score Loan" for Utah home buyers with middle credit scores between 620 and 660.

Data out today from Equifax shows the number of consumers with sub-prime credit scores is shrinking across the country and more home buyers can now be helped with home financing!

Nationally, the total number of consumers with Equifax credit scores below 620 fell 2.1 percent, or by about 1 million consumers, in the third quarter of 2012 versus the third quarter of 2011.

Why I love what I do!

Home ownership has a significant impact on net worth, educational achievement, civic participation, health, and overall quality of life. And, home ownership helps create jobs—lots of them—right here at home.

• For every two homes sold, one job is created in the U.S.

• Each purchase generates as much as $60,000 in economic activity over time.

Selling your home? Why is tile and hardwood all the rage?

1. Think like a buyer, to understand why carpet is falling out of fashion. Today's buyers are seeking low-maintenance, high-performance home finishes that allow maximum versatility and healthfulness for their families. And wall-to-wall carpet triggers many of those concerns:

• Maintenance: By and large, buyers see carpet as something that requires regular, professional cleaning -- or labor-intensive self-cleaning -- at a couple hundred bucks a pop.
• Performance: There are certainly high-end carpets that wear well over time, but many of the carpets that are installed by sellers just prior to putting a home on the market do not qualify. These light-colored, inexpensive carpets often look old and worn relatively early in their lives, and buyers know this.
• Versatility: A buyer of a home with carpeting everywhere is somewhat limited in their decor and design choices by the preferences of the seller before them. By contrast, hard flooring finishes allow the buyer a near-infinite range of decor palette choices.
• Healthfulness: Buyers see traditional carpeting as something that off-gases toxic fumes and traps dirt and allergens that may exacerbate family members' allergies or other respiratory issues. Many see hardwood and other hard flooring finishes as more healthful and sustainable for their families -- and for the planet. To boot, buyers who have pets and children know that these little wild family members can be very hard on carpet.

What is with all the hating on carpeting? | Inman News

Digital Media Usage Among Home Shoppers

NAR Research: NAR and Google Study of Digital Media Usage Among Home Shoppers | realtor.org

Report Highlights

- 90 percent of home buyers searched online during their home buying process
- Real estate related searches on Google.com grew 253 percent over the past four years.
- Buyers use specific online tools during different phases of the home search process
- How important "local" search terms and websites are for buyers
- How mobile technology cements online to offline home buying — including the reading of online reviews
- How video and YouTube satisfy buyers' research needs
- The role of age and gender in driving real estate decision making in the market by being the top demographics who searched online and took the next steps offline
- Top states for searches around first-time home buyer tips and specific housing segments like senior housing and foreclosures

Home values continue to climb (Very nicely in the Mountain Region!)!)

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) Purchase-Only Home Price Index rose 0.6 percent between October and November, 2012, and has climbed 5.6% in a year.

Prices appear to have bottomed in October 2011, and have since returned to June 2010 levels.


The 5.60% average of increase in home values nationally is made up of regional averages.  The Mountain region leads the increases in home values.  Here is a sampling of the annual Home Price Index data from the FHFA's 9 U.S. regions (Oct-Nov 2012) :

• Pacific : +11.1% (Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California)
• Mountain : +14.8% (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona)
• Middle Atlantic : +0.5% (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania)
• East North Central : +2.3% (Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio)
• South Atlantic : 7.0% (Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida)

Nationwide, home values remain roughly 15% below the April 2007 peak.

6 Unexpected Advantages of Having the Right Agent

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson | Broker in San Francisco, CA


I once worked with a buyer who had to fly to the other end of the world within a couple of days after we placed her offer. Needless to say, she was agitated and anxious about the prospect of being so far away during inspections and contingency removals, especially since I’d earlier stressed how important it was for her to be present.

Rolling with the punches and poor timing, we sat down just before she left and talked through the timeline, including which events would take place on every day of her absence - including some harmless glitches that commonly arise along the way.

I never will forget her laughter when the occasional glitch of this sort did, in fact, come up. She would say: “I would have been stressed out by that. But since I knew to expect it, I’m not!”

The list of pleasant surprises in real estate matters is really, really short. Normally, we all want things to tick along precisely according to plan, and almost anything unexpected causes us inconvenience or plain old stress. But there is one relatively common set of real estate surprises that is actually quite delightful: the unexpected perks of working with the right real estate pro.

Most sellers come to their real estate agent relationships expecting help selling their home on a particular time frame, and marketing the place to make that happen.  Buyers are most often seeking an agent’s help finding the right home and negotiating to buy it.

But both buyers and sellers are often pleasantly surprised at the other resources, strategic counsel and expertise their agents ultimately provide.  Here are some of the biggest benefits that catch them off-guard:

Read on for the 6 Unexpected Advantages of Having the Right Agent

Preventing freezing pipes

On track to be one of the coldest January's on record, by taking preventive measures as cold weather has arrived (it's never too late to prevent a impending disaster!), you can prevent freezing pipes and the costly damage that goes with them.
Where the trouble lies

"Some pipes are more prone to freezing than others because of their location in the home," explains Paul Abrams, spokesman for Roto-Rooter.

Pipes most at risk for freezing include:

• Exposed pipes in unheated areas of the home.

• Pipes located in exterior walls.

• Any plumbing on the exterior of the home.

Read further for more Preventative measures 

Interest cost down 31% vs. 2 years ago

It's a Refi Boom. Mortgage rates have been on decline for more than 2 years. Conforming mortgage rates, FHA mortgage rates, VA mortgage rates and jumbos -- they're all at all-time lows.
Meanwhile, so is the value of the mortgage interest tax deduction. As mortgage rates remain below 4 percent, today's homeowner is paying less mortgage interest to the bank each year.
As compared to two years ago, homeowners paying 31% less mortgage interest.

2013 begins with near record low mortgage rates!

2013 starting off GREAT with LOW Rates!

"How long can rates stay this low?", you ask yourself.  We continue to have favorable refinance opportunities for both 15 and 30 years rates and purchase business is off to a record start in January! 

Here's more good news from Freddie Mac today:
"Mortgage rates started the year near record lows which should continue to aid the ongoing housing recovery," said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist for Freddie Mac. "New home sales rose in November to a two-year high and were up 15.3 percent from the previous November. Similarly, pending sales on existing homes increased for the third month in November to the strongest pace since April 2010."

Watch out for approval "landmines"!

For all the talk of how tough it is to be "mortgage approved", the basics of mortgages haven't changed. Mortgage approvals are still the 3-legged stool of income, equity, and credit.
Sometimes, though, it's not getting approved that's hard -- it's staying approved.
You have to watch out for landmines.

During the process, things can go wrong

Because mortgage approvals (the approval to loan closing time frame) take time, there is plenty of time for "things" to happen to you and unqualify you or unapprove your approval.  :(   In a typical home loan market, it's about 3 weeks from start-to-finish.
Approvals can take longer, however, depending on market conditions. For example, if rates are low and there's a refi boom on-going, a refinance can take 4 weeks to close.

Some things you just don't have any control over: For example, if lose your job, become ill, or see your home damaged by storms (refinance), you may lose your mortgage approval -- even if you were previously cleared-to-close.
Unfortunately, these are all events that are beyond your control. You can't control sickness any more than you can control Mother Nature. But you can control yourself during those extra few weeks.

Making sure that you don't do something that you do have control over to cause your loan to be "unapproved" is what I wanted to mention here.  Good behavior matters in mortgage.

Bad Decisions during the Mortgage Application Process

Keeping "good behavior" in mind, here are 8 things you should absolutely not do between your date of application and your date of funding. I have seen each of these things derail a closing:

1. Don't buy a new car or trade-up to a bigger lease or car payment
2. Don't quit your job, changing industries or start a new company
3. Don't switch from a salaried job to a heavily-commissioned or large bonus in place of salary, job
4. Don't transfer large sums of money between bank accounts
5. Don't forget to pay your bills -- even the ones in dispute
6. Don't open new credit cards -- even if you're getting 20% off
7. Don't accept a cash gift without filing the proper "gift" paperwork
8. Don't make random, undocumented deposits into your bank account

There are a plenty of other items to beware of during the mortgage loan application to closing process, but this is a good "first list" to pay particular attention to.