Has anyone refinanced a mortgage in CA lately? (Eureka, Needles: refinancing, credit)

[suzie02]

We were thinking of refinancing our current mortgage the first lender we looked at was ING Direct. We used them for our previous home and it was great. The website now says that to refi with them we can only borrow 75% of value but when I plugged in the numbers for my house. The calculator says I can only borrow 70%.
Needless to say we will not used them and other lenders charge such high closing cost that we will stay put.

I am just curious if anyone has actually been able to refi?

[eureka1]

I just refi'd my house in Eureka and got a 4.75 rate but the next week it went back up to 5. I had two things in my favor. 1) Dealing with a credit union,not a bank, where I already had a mortgage. and 2)the LTV or whatever they call it was favorable because the house appraised at $260K (Down from $300K before) and the mortgage is only $130K. I'm bummed at the appraisal but whatchagonnado?

[EscapeCalifornia]

I can certainly understand banks being leery of lending too much relative to the "value" of the home in a declining market.

[suzie02]

Originally Posted by eureka1

I just refi'd my house in Eureka and got a 4.75 rate but the next week it went back up to 5. I had two things in my favor. 1) Dealing with a credit union,not a bank, where I already had a mortgage. and 2)the LTV or whatever they call it was favorable because the house appraised at $260K (Down from $300K before) and the mortgage is only $130K. I'm bummed at the appraisal but whatchagonnado?

Your LTV was very favorable 50%.
We put down 20% when we purchased. And now we have no idea how much our house will appraise for.

[suzie02]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

I can certainly understand banks being leery of lending too much relative to the "value" of the home in a declining market.

Yeah but they went from financing 100% to 70%-80%.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by suzie02

Yeah but they went from financing 100% to 70%-80%.

I'd say financing 100% to anyone with a W2 and a pulse was a big part of why things are the way they are now. The banks have already lost their collective butts so they're going to be extra cautious with the loans they make now. If they loaned you 85% and prices go down another 20%, you're upside down and might walk. They've already got enough of those on their hands.

[Narfcake]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

I'd say financing 100% to anyone with a W2 and a pulse was a big part of why things are the way they are now.

Providing a W2 back then was quite rare.

Truth is that anyone with a pulse and a valid social security number to show they have excellent credit was all that was necessary. They were called NINJA loans - No Income, No Job/Assets. The buyer didn't have to disclose much of anything, nor would the lender check. Practically all that was needed was their credit and their word.

Years back, an 80% LTV was the norm for a purchase, 75% for refi. It's back to that nowadays. The lenders are going back to the conservative days in which one actually had to prove they make money.

That said, I'm not so confident about any major bank lending right now. Checked with WaMu (Chase) recently about a purchase; even though we're going in at 67% LTV, they said funding was out for 120 days. That's not a good sign.

[OC Investor2]

I am doing a cash out refi, but at a lower LTV then I was initatilly qouted.

We keep a HELOC on the house for use in emergencies (have never used a dime of it in the 5 years we have had it) and when we initailly discussed the refi we are doing the broker said our combined LTV + Heloc had to be less then 85% of the appraised value of the house. Midway thru the process the bank, which has both the loan & the HELOC, changed criteria and would only fund us to 80% Combined LTV & HELOC. Then the appraisal came back $10k less then the very conservative assumption we had used going into the process. At the end of the day, we had to lower the value of our line by $20k to keep the cash out amount the same. No big deal, but it does show there is alot of wind in the face of anyone looking to borrow money nowadays.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by Narfcake

Providing a W2 back then was quite rare.

Truth is that anyone with a pulse and a valid social security number to show they have excellent credit was all that was necessary. They were called NINJA loans - No Income, No Job/Assets. The buyer didn't have to disclose much of anything, nor would the lender check. Practically all that was needed was their credit and their word.

Maybe for ARM loans?

I couldn't get purchase money loan approval from Wells Fargo or Chase in 2005 for a 30 Year Fixed Loan with 25% down.

Both approved me for ARM loans with 5% down.

Didn't make any sense to me... so I said the heck with it and paid cash...