Today's Mortgage Rates

Low mortgage rates are enticing more homeowners to apply for a mortgage refinance. Mortgage loan application volume rose 13% for the week ended Aug. 13, 2010, compared with a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The MBA’s Refinance Index jumped 17% from the previous week.

Many homeowners are jumping at the chance to refinance as the 3o-year fixed-rate mortgage has fallen to an average of 4.6% and 15-year home loans are at 3.99%. With rates so low, here are a few things to consider if you are trying to decide whether or not to refinance.

• How long will it take to recoup any closing costs associated with refinancing? The longer you plan to stay in your home after refinancing, the better off you’ll. Have your mortgage broker run the numbers to find the break even point for refinancing.
• Do you have an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM)? There are plenty of people out there who still have ARMs that are scheduled to reset at a higher rate at some point. Mortgage rates are low now, but think about whether or not you’ll be able to afford the monthly payments when rates start to climb again.
• Do you have enough home equity to refinance? It doesn’t matter how low mortgage rates are if you are underwater on a home loan. Unless you qualify for the government’s program to help distressed homeowners — which has had lukewarm results — it will be tough to get a mortgage lender to approve a refinance.

Even if you don’t qualify for a home refinance right now continue to make your monthly housing payments on time each month to avoid problems. Not only will you avoid foreclosure, but a as the housing market recovers you may find yourself in a better position to get approved for refinancing down the line.

Pregnancy has a lot of risks associated with it. But other than some of the obvious health issues involved, now your dreams of home ownership could be affected.

Apparently mortgage lenders are giving the thumbs down to parents who are expecting a baby or are on maternity leave when they apply for mortgage loans, according to the New York Times. That’s because mortgage lenders want to see proof that a borrower’s current income is enough to cover mortgage payments.

So if you just had a newborn and are on maternity leave, it’s likely that you won’t qualify for a mortgage even if you plan to return to work soon. Even if you can actually afford to buy a home to accommodate your growing family and are guaranteed a job after a leave, you may be required to provide even more proof of qualifying income and assets than normal.

In some cases, banks are showing new parents to the door and instructing them to apply later when they are back at work. And don’t think that new moms are the only ones being denied. Workers who are on other types of leaves from their jobs and have a drop in income may also be out of luck when applying for a mortgage.

“Maternity leave or any other leave of absence often prevents a person from obtaining a mortgage. There are some who long for the days when such strict proof of income was not required,” John Councilman, president of AMC Mortgage in Fallston, Md., told the New York Times.

NEW YORK — Mortgage applications rose for a second week as demand for home purchase loans outweighed slower refinancing activity, an industry trade group said Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association says its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and purchasing loans, increased 0.6% to 657.2 the week ended April 27 .

The four-week moving average of mortgage applications, which smooths the volatile weekly figures, was up 0.3%.

U.S. housing industry indexes, in general, tend to be volatile. Recently, they have painted a mixed picture, with some pointing to weakening and others to stabilization in the hard-hit sector.

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