When will new confirming loans be actionable for ReFi's, my bank isn't offering and can't say when they will (agent, standard)

[mc1]

I've been checking with my bank, HSBC, on when they will offer the new levels for conforming loans. I get stonewalled, with little to no answer. They keep saying check back, so I guess I call every week or two. They also said expect the rates to rocket when it is released and another whopper, that it might require a point on the new loan.
I sold and bought last summer, so I traded up to a house from a condo. I did very well on the condo and bought a house because I've a 2 year old son and we wanted more space and a nice neighborhood for him to grow up in. The house is certainly alot more expensive and I'm not worried that we may have overpaid, especially since we did well on the condo. I'm sure the value of the house has dropped, but we are going to live in this house (g-d willing) for the next 30 years or the rest of our lives. We love it.
Still, we got a Jumbo, and it would be great to get the conforming rate as we did what most first time home buyers are told to do, to by just slightly outside our comfort level as we'll grow into the home and not want to go bigger in 5 years (as we actually did with the condo). We can handle it, but with the rising prices of just about everything of late, the lower rate would be a major help.
SO....can anyone help with any suggestions or advice on what the deal is? Why are the banks opening this up and what's with the point applied? It doesn't make sense to me, that if we got a standard loan that we'd get that penalty. Are ANY banks offering this yet? I understand that the new limits are for a limited time and I'd really like to not miss the boat of either it expiring, or for rates to zoom up where it doesn't make sense (my Jumbo is actually not bad at all, it's 6.25, but 5.75 or thereabouts is quite a bit more attractive).
Thanks!

[Silverfall]

The temporary increase is good until the end of the year.

The reason you might be getting stonewalled is that Freddie and Fannie are using 125% of the median home price for the area as the new limit so it will change from area to area. It was just a straight $417K before. I think there is still some confusion about which data to use on this.

Jumbo loans are not performing well in the current mortgage environment and so many lenders are raising the rates or increasing the points to account for this. I am hearing that is is especially true when the LTV ratio is above 80%.

So...if you aren't getting anywhere with your current lender, you may want to call a local mortgage broker and see what is out there.

[Gretchen B]

mc1 - you might try posting your question in the "Mortgage" forum, since that's where most of the mortgage brokers on C-D hang out, and I think they'd have the inside scoop on what's going on with the proposed loan amount increases.

I personally think you've got a really great rate on your current mortgage. It's probably going to be costly to re-fi, and mortgage rates haven't been dropping all that much. In fact, depending on who you talk to it sounds like mortgage rates may even be going up. The Fed cuts on the Prime don't affect long-term mtg rates, since those are more closely tied to the Bond market.

It could be that you've got about the best loan rate out there. Who knows what will happen to this mortgage market between now and the elections . . . and it's anybody's guess beyond that.

[mc1]

I didn't check if there was a mortgage section, will do.

FYI, I'm most concerned about the fact that the upper limit, which is at max in my area (NE NJ), is not being accepted by the bank for us to refi. They acknowledge the change, but they say that HSBC itself isn't offering the refi oppty yet. This doesn't make sense to me. If the ceiling was raised, what is slowing down the process to allow for me to refi? I can't get a straight answer to understand why I'm not able to intiiate the refi yet based on standard loan rates.

Thanks

[DMenscha]

Don't just look at one lender, consult a mortgage broker for the best deal out there. Just because HSBC can't get it together doesn't mean that it can't be done.

Good Luck!

[mc1]

Any suggestions on how to find a good broker in the NE NJ area?

[DMenscha]

Ask a real estate agent or two who they go to.