Orlando Short Sale Expert | Orlando Short Sales, Orlando Short Sale Realtor / Agent

A survey conducted by Zillow.com finds that many prospective homebuyers don’t understand even basic information about mortgages, relying heavily on advice from lenders.

Fairly simple mortgage questions were answered incorrectly almost half (46 percent) the time according to a Zillow Mortgage Marketplace survey; and 44 percent admitted they’re not confident in their knowledge of mortgages or the mortgage process.

For example, 57 percent of prospective homebuyers polled don’t understand how adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) work. When asked if interest rates on 5/1 ARMs always reset higher after five years, the majority of homebuyers answered yes. However, an ARM interest rate will adjust to the prevailing rate after five years and in could even go lower. Currently, many borrowers whose ARMs have recently reset have lower interest rates than they did when they took out the loan.

Additionally, one-third (34 percent) of prospective homebuyers don’t understand that lender fees are negotiable and that they vary by lender. They mistakenly believe lenders are required by law to charge the same fees for credit reports and appraisals. Consequently, they don’t shop around for lower fees.

“Most people wouldn’t jump out of a plane if they didn’t know how to use a parachute, yet each year many buyers commit to the largest loan they will take out in their lifetimes without understanding essential information about mortgages,” says Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Director Erin Lantz. “By simply spending a few hours researching how a mortgage works and shopping around for the most competitive rates and fees, buyers can save a lot of money.”

Additional findings from prospective home buyers polled:

• Nearly half (45 percent) believe that they should always buy mortgage discount points when obtaining a mortgage. However, because mortgage discount points are simply prepaid interest, the decision should depend on how long the borrower intends to own the home. In some cases, they may not stay in the house long enough to break even.

• More than half (55 percent) do not understand that mortgage rates vary throughout the day, similar to how stock prices can change throughout the day. To get the optimum rate, it’s important to monitor rates and shop around.

• More than one-third (37 percent) believe that pre-qualifying for a loan means they have secured financing. But “pre-qualification” describes the earliest step in the process when a lender approximates how much a borrower can afford – but doesn’t run a credit report or request any documentation to verify the information. Although there is not a reliable industry standard definition of pre-qualification, financing is never secured until a lender approves a loan application without conditions.

• More than two in five (42 percent) do not understand that Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans are available to all buyers. Instead, they believe only first-time buyers qualify. FHA loans can cost less for many buyers, including repeat buyers, with low to average credit scores and downpayments less than 20 percent.

Interactive online quiz and resources available

An online version of the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace survey, the “Mortgage IQ Quiz,” is available here.

It contains the correct answers and detailed explanations to each question. Following the quiz, participants receive a score and find resources to learn more about mortgages and the mortgage process.
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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.
Please visit:
Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com
Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,
If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals – http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com
Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.
Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

More buyers in high-cost areas may be motivated to purchase a home before an Oct. 1 deadline when the government plans to scale back the size of “jumbo” mortgages it guarantees in costly real estate markets.

On Oct. 1, the maximum loan amount that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac accept is set to decrease from $729,750 to $625,500. This might make mortgages more expensive or more difficult to get for buyers in high-cost areas.

For example, after Oct. 1, a borrower who seeks a government-backed mortgage for a $1-million property may have to come up with a $370,000 down payment instead of $270,000.

Up until 2008, any loan more than $418,000 was considered a jumbo loan, but that later swelled to $625,500 and then was temporarily set at $729,750 (which expires at the end of September). Once the current jumbo loan limit expires, lenders who want to make loans over $625,500 either will have to hold onto the mortgage themselves or find a private investor to purchase it.

In the last quarter of 2010, private lenders originated more loans over $417,000 –which is considered the traditional jumbo market – than did government agencies.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee  Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.

Please visit:

Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help  http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com

Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com,  or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,

If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals –  http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com

Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake  or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud,  Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden,  Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland,  Apopka,  Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.

Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

Getting a mortgage just keeps getting tougher, and many homebuyers are getting rejected for loans they could easily afford.

The issue: Tighter standards from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government entities that back mortgages made by banks.

Banks are reluctant to make loans without the Fannie and Freddie guarantee, and loans backed by them account for just about every mortgage written these days.
In 2009, the agencies lifted the minimum credit score that borrowers must have from 580 to 620. That’s probably for the best.

But they’ve pushed through a host of other requirements as well, and that means real estate deals don’t get done, even for some relatively low-risk borrowers.
“You can have one Fannie/Freddie guideline you violate and that gets you rejected,” said Alan Rosenbaum of GuardHill Financial.

A quarter of all mortgage loan applicants get denied for loans, according to the Federal Reserve. Many other potential homebuyers never even try to get loans, said Jerry Howard, president of the National Association of Home Builders.
“The pendulum has swung too far in the other direction,” Howard said. “This overreaction is retarding the housing market recovery.”
Here are some of the reasons that banks must turn down borrowers for mortgages:
Too few of the condos in your association have been sold
For Fannie/Freddie lenders to approve a mortgage to finance purchase of a condo, a large majority of the units — 70% — have to be already sold or under contract to individuals. Before 2009, the threshold was 51%.
If more than 30% are still owned by the company that built the complex or sponsored its conversion from rental units, the mortgage will be denied, no matter how qualified the buyer is.

Your debt is too high

Fannie and Freddie have also increased their emphasis on income relative to debt.
If someone’s total debt payments exceed 45% of income, the mortgage will be denied. In 2009, the limit was 55%.
Using that as a hard and fast rule can penalize very qualified buyers, ones who should be able to meet their debt obligations.
Take, for example, a couple that wants to buy a second home as a rental. Two mortgage payments could easily push them past the 45% threshold, even though they’ll have rental income and home equity.
The 45% rule can also hurt small business owners who have had a couple of bad years. Their incomes may be down relative to their debt, but they may have plenty of cash to keep from defaulting on a mortgage.
The wait after foreclosure is extended to seven years from five

Some borrowers lost homes to foreclosure but then diligently rebuilt their financial health. Despite high credit scores, ample assets and income and steady employment, lenders are not allowed to finance their Fannie/Freddie mortgages if their foreclosures happened any time within the past seven years.
Before spring last year, the wait time was five years.
Missed payments on credit card debt

Fannie and Freddie also have gotten stricter in how they factor in missed payments on credit cards, auto loans and other debts in which the balances do not have to be paid off every month.
They used to be okay with a missed payment or two. Now, one missed payment will hit your debt-to-income ratio, because banks will add 5% of your outstanding loan balance to the debt part of the calculation.
That would be an extra $1,000 on a $20,000 student loan balance, for example.
Where to go

“Portfolio lenders will look at the entire credit history and see a blemish and say, ‘This has no impact on credit worthiness,’” said Rosenbaum.
They may offer rates and terms competitive with agency loans but if there are serious risk factors, loans can be more expensive, according to Bob Moulton, a mortgage broker with Americana Mortgage on Long Island.
“It’s a tough environment,” he said “For people like the self-employed, mortgages can get pricey.”
He recently arranged a mortgage for a private businessman through a savings bank. His client paid a rate of 7.9%, about three points higher than the average 30-year fixed. The rate is only good for three years, after which it resets and can rise by as much as two points annually and go as high as 13.9%.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.
Please visit:
Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com
Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,
If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals – http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com
Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.
Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

A government program intended to help hundreds of thousands of underwater homeowners is off to a slow start.

Since its September launch, only 38 homeowners have refinanced mortgages through the FHA Short Refinance program, backed with $11 billion in federal funds. The Federal Housing Administration has said the program could eventually help 500,000 to 1.5 million borrowers.

The program requires mortgage owners to forgive at least 10 percent of a borrower’s unpaid principal so that the loan can be refinanced into an FHA loan at a lower interest rate. The goal: keep homeowners out of foreclosure even if they owe more on their homes than the homes are worth.

Foreclosures depress home values, weakening the economy. About 10.8 million homeowners, 23 percent of those with mortgages, are underwater, according to researcher CoreLogic.

But the industry has yet to embrace the program, says FHA Commissioner David Stevens. He says the numbers are “lower than we would like.” As of Jan. 28, 223 applications were pending, he says.

The results indicate “a pretty clear rejection,” says Alan White, associate professor of law at Valparaiso University.

A big hurdle is that the program requires principal reductions on loans that homeowners have kept current. “Banks aren’t eager” to reduce the principal on such loans, says Laurie Goodman, a senior managing director at Amherst Securities.

Principal was reduced on just 4.5 percent of the loans modified in the third quarter, government data indicate. Most modifications involved lower interest rates or longer loan terms.

Another obstacle is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee half of the nation’s home loans, don’t make principal reductions. The Obama administration wants the mortgage giants, which were taken over by the government in 2008, to participate in the FHA program, Stevens says. But their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, says that the question of principal reductions has been “under review,” spokeswoman Corinne Russell says.

Bank of America, the largest mortgage servicer, says it’ll take part in the FHA program if Freddie and Fannie do. They own half the loans that BofA services, BofA’s Dan Frahm says. Without their loans, the number of eligible customers would be “extremely limited,” he says.

The FHA program is one of several government attempts to curb foreclosures. Its main effort, the Home Affordable Modification Program, was dubbed a “failure” last month by Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the government’s bank bailouts. As of Dec. 31, HAMP had 522,000 permanent loan modifications underway. Started two years ago, HAMP was projected to help at least 3 million homeowners.
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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.
Please visit:
Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com
Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,
If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals – http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com
Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.
Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

FICOs and FHA: 2 big lenders loosen up

Here’s some unexpected good news for anybody working to get buyers into houses, especially first-timers who don’t have much down payment cash on hand: The door to an FHA-insured mortgage just opened a little wider.

With no fanfare or public announcements, two of the largest FHA-approved lenders have backed off their controversial “overlay” requirements on FICO scores (lender overlays are qualification requirements that can be more stringent than FHA’s own requirements).

Both Wells Fargo and Quicken Loans confirmed to me last week that they will now lend to applicants with 580 FICOs and 3.5 percent down payments.
Their revised standards conform in most respects to FHA’s own minimums, and open the agency’s financing to large numbers of buyers whose credit scores have sagged during the recession. Wells Fargo is the largest originator of FHA-insured mortgages; Quicken ranks third, according to industry data.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.
Please visit:
Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com
Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,
If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals – http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com
Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.
Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

“A Wall Street Journal article Wednesday began, ‘Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in talks with Obama administration officials to join fledgling government programs aimed at reducing loan balances of mortgages where borrowers owe more than their homes are worth.’ They may be in talks, but the talks clearly aren’t going well. When I asked the folks over at Fannie Mae to comment, they obliged quickly with, ‘We regularly review our policies regarding the modification of mortgages based on changing economic circumstances and our analysis of whether the effectiveness of the policies can be improved.

We have been and will continue to work closely with FHFA on these matters.’ I know. The FHFA, the GSE’s federal regulator charged with keeping the two mortgage giants afloat while still protecting taxpayers, responded with ‘No comment.’ It’s all about the FHA’s ‘short refi’ program, which offers lenders cash incentives to reduce balances on underwater loans (by at least 10 percent),
if the borrowers are still current on their payments. In turn, the lender can then refinance to an FHA-insured loan. So I called over to the FHA, where commissioner David Stevens had plenty to say, including that the GSE’s were being ‘shortsighted.’ He used that word with several media outlets, I noticed. But he went on… ‘What we believe they need to value seriously is that unlike other modification programs where there’s potential high re-default risk, and they retain the asset, the value of being able to monetize the remaining asset and not retain future risk has significant value.”

“But the fact is, and I know it is barely a few months old, exactly three loans have made their way through the program to date. Fannie and Freddie hold the lions share of loans that would benefit from this, and the big servicers aren’t going to jump in on their own without them. Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm says BofA is still considering the FHA program, but admits, ‘Our calculations of the program show the number of our customers that would benefit from the program would be very limited without the participation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.’ Bank of America already reduces principal in many of its proprietary modifications.

Implementing the FHA program could result in ‘capacity strains of required technology and training programs’ which Frahm says might not be justified by the benefits to so few eligible customers. With so much resistance to the program, rumors began circulating that FHA might dump the program, but apparently without merit. ‘No way,’ Commissioner Stevens told me this afternoon. ‘We are looking at what else could be done within reason to help make our programs work more effectively, but these are movements on the margin if anything.”

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.
Please visit:
Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com
Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,
If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals – http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com
Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.
Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

Florida still leads the nation in the percentage of homeowners who are “seriously delinquent” on their loans, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday.

In the state, 19.52 percent of borrowers were either 90 days past due or in foreclosure in the third quarter. Add in borrowers who are 30 and 60 days late, and nearly one in four Floridians are behind on their loans.

The good news is that Florida’s seriously delinquent rate is down from 20.13 percent in the second quarter. But no other state met Florida’s lofty level of late payers. Nevada was No. 2 at 17.83 percent, while Illinois’ 10.77 percent ranked third.

With Florida’s job market still weak and home prices way down from a few years ago, it’s no surprise that the state’s delinquency rates are so high, said Jack McCabe, a real estate analyst in Deerfield Beach.

“With 48 percent of the state’s homeowners underwater, we’re going to continue to see delinquencies go up,” McCabe said. “The truth is a lot of people have given up and have stopped paying their mortgages.”

Part of the blame lies with the way foreclosures are handled in Florida, said Michael Fratantoni, the Mortgage Bankers’ vice president of research and economics. Florida and other states where foreclosures go through the courts have foreclosure inventories that are twice as high as so-called non-judicial states, he said.

Of course, the court system is only partly to blame for Florida’s delinquency problem. The bigger culprits are a withering collapse in prices and an 11.9 percent jobless rate that’s well above the national unemployment rate of 9.6 percent.

Nationally, the delinquency rate fell, too, which the Mortgage Bankers Association attributed to modest improvements in the job market. The foreclosure freeze at some lenders hasn’t played a role in falling delinquencies.

“The foreclosure paperwork issues announced by several large servicers in late September and early October are unlikely to have had a large impact on the third-quarter numbers,” Fratantoni said.

This certainly tells us that that we’re not close to being out of this foreclosure mess. Once again, I’ll say that things will continue until 2015 before we start seeing any improvement. If you’re in this situation and need help give us a call. We specialize in short sales and we can help.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.
Please visit:
Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com
Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,
If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals – http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com
Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.
Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

The majority of Americans, say it’s “unacceptable” for homeowners to stop making their mortgage payments and abandon their homes, but more than a third, 36 percent, say “walking away” is okay.

A Pew Research Center study found that 59 percent believe it is wrong for homeowners to deliberately stop paying their mortgages and surrender their homes to the mortgage lender.

Among those who said walking away is okay, 19 percent said it’s acceptable outright and an additional 17 percent volunteered that it depends on the circumstances.

Either way, walking away can sink your credit score and come with an extra tax burden, not to mention the potential of a court suit.

The survey, conducted May 11 to May 31, queried 2,967 adults and found more than one-in-five homeowners (21 percent) say they owe more on their mortgages than their home is worth.

The “underwater” situation compels some homeowners to stop making their mortgage payments and let the bank foreclose on their homes.

Many homeowners, who can afford a mortgage payment, have nevertheless stopped making payments in what’s called a “strategic default” and that’s caused mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae, reeling from mounting losses, to sue them.

Alternatives to walking away, say a short sale, mortgage modification, a refinance (if possible), even an outright sale for less than the home is worth, are probably better ideas.

According to RealtyTrac.com, in August, lenders foreclosed on 95,364 U.S. properties in August, the highest monthly total in the half-decade history of the report.

Nearly half (48 percent) of all homeowners say the value of their home declined during the recession, and as a group they were more likely than those whose home did not lose value to say it’s acceptable to bail out on a mortgage (20 percent vs. 14 percent).

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee  Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.

Please visit:

Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help  http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com

Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com,  or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,

If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals –  http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com

Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake  or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud,  Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden,  Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland,  Apopka,  Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

Mark your calendars. The Van Ripers have moved up the date of their mortgage-burning party. When the couple purchased their St. Paul, Minn., home in 2005, they locked in a 6 percent interest rate for 30 years. But with mortgage rates at jaw-dropping lows, they were able to refinance into a 4.125 percent, 15-year mortgage that will save them more than $100,000 in interest and allow them to pay off the mortgage by the time their 3-year-old son is in college. All this for a $100 increase in their monthly mortgage payment.

Shorter-term mortgages are deliciously low. Last week, the average rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.83 percent with an average 0.6 point (a point equals 1 percent of the loan value), according to Freddie Mac. The rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage wasn’t much higher, weighing in at an average 4.35 percent with an average 0.7 points paid.

Refinancing to a shorter-term mortgage if you can afford the payment seems like an obvious smart-money move. You’ll pay far less in interest, get rid of the monthly fixed expense earlier, and have freer cash flow in retirement. Plus there’s the high that homeowners feel when they imagine making their last mortgage payment.

“It’s just nice to think it’s going to be done,” said 33-year-old David Van Riper.

But there’s a camp out there that believes locking into a shorter-term mortgage is unwise, especially when rates are so low on 30-year mortgages and economic uncertainty so high.

When Kevin McKinley, a Wisconsin financial planner and co-host of Wisconsin Public Radio’s “On Your Money,” learned I refinanced into a 15-year loan, he e-mailed me a list of reasons why I shouldn’t have. His primary concern? That I’ve locked myself into higher payments at a time when the job market is shaky and home equity is tougher to access. “It’s about having the cash right now and being able to do what you wish instead of being at the mercy of the bank, or the real estate market if you have to sell, or your own job,” he said.

McKinley would have refinanced into a 30-year loan and stashed any money freed up by the lower payment in a savings account or CD.

I could also have taken the excess and put that money to work in the stock market or even in bonds. Considering my mortgage interest rate after the tax deduction is in the 3 percent territory, it wouldn’t be hard to beat that in the market. But that’s not a sure thing.

“Given the recent variations in the stock market and whatnot and the low interest rate in savings, it just seemed to make sense to put it into the house,” Van Riper said.

Alex Stenback, a mortgage banker with Residential Mortgage Group in Minnetonka, Minn., said this difficult economic stretch has brought out the conservative side in most of us.

“When savings rates go up, when people start talking about 15-year mortgages or paying their mortgages off ahead of schedule, that’s really just a form of self-insurance. They’re no longer as comfortable with the fact that the sky’s the limit and the ladder goes up for them economically,” he said.

Anticipating your financial future is hard, but that’s exactly what Bill Schwietz, president of the Minnesota Mortgage Association, tries to get clients to do when choosing between loans. He’s seen several friends who started with 30-year mortgages, then refinanced to 15-year loans with a big promotion and then refinanced into a 30-year loan again when their children’s hockey fees and private school tuition became too much.

Problem is, if you lengthen your loan and roll in closing costs with each refinancing, you’ll never pay down the principal.

Kate Wilson, branch manager for Fairway Independent Mortgage in Bloomington, Minn., said 15-year loans can certainly make sense. But she always reminds her clients that there’s no law against paying off a 30-year mortgage on a 15-year schedule. You’ll still save a boatload, even if your rate on a 30-year mortgage is half a percentage point higher than a 15-year would have been.

Here’s the example she calculated: On a $200,000, 30-year mortgage at 4.5 percent, you’ll pay $164,813 in interest with a monthly payment of $1,013.37. Pay down that loan in 15 years (by making prepayments of about $517 per month on the mortgage balance) and your monthly payment would be $1,529.98 and you’d pay $75,396 in interest. If you went with a 15-year mortgage at 4 percent instead, you’d pay $66,286 in interest and have a payment of $1,479.37.

So ask yourself if you’d be willing to pay a few thousand dollars more in interest for the flexibility of having an extra $500 a month to cover life’s expenses without tapping home equity. Also assess whether you’re disciplined enough to actually prepay the loan. If the answer is no, then a shorter-term mortgage is a good fit, provided you can truly afford it.

Most mortgage bankers, including Wilson, have calculators on their websites. The financial calculator site dinkytown.net has several calculators to choose from, including a 15-year vs. 30-year mortgage calculator.

Of course, there’s that little problem of declining home values that’s making it hard for people who put little money down or bought at the peak to refinance. But having little equity doesn’t slam the door. Borrowers with an FHA loan can reduce their rate without an appraisal using the FHA streamline refinance option if they meet the requirements, which include paying the mortgage on time, having income and meeting the minimum credit score requirements set by their lender (generally around 640 these days, Stenback said).

There’s also the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program as well as the recently launched short refinance program for non-FHA borrowers who are underwater. Learn more about both options at http://www.hud.gov/.

Even if your current circumstances lock you out of a refi, there’s nothing stopping you from prepaying a longer-term mortgage. Make an extra payment on your 30-year loan each year and you’ll retire it approximately seven years earlier.

“That’s a huge pile of money,” Wilson said.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee  Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area. Please visit http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com,  http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,  www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com for your Orlando real estate needs.  Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake  or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud,  Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden,  Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland,  Apopka,  Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. Call us at 407-580-7011 to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

Eager to avoid writing down the loans on their books, banks have been extending many of them with the hope that the market will improve. Even banks that foreclosed on properties have kept them on their books, reluctant to auction them in a market where investors offer as low as 10 cents on the dollar.

Now that appears to be changing, and it could have implications for property owners caught up in the sell-off.

“The proverbial logjam is beginning to break up,” said Jim Anthony, CEO of Anthony & Co., a Raleigh real estate services company.

As evidence, Anthony said BB&T plans to auction $1 billion of performing and nonperforming loans in the Southeast.

BB&T would neither confirm nor deny reports of the auction. “BB&T continues to evaluate opportunities to best execute our problem loan disposition strategy, which may or may not include bulk sales,” said spokeswoman Cynthia Williams.

BB&T has been more aggressive of late in writing down its troubled loans and moving to rid itself of some of them. The bank’s CEO, Kelly King, has indicated the strategy will continue as long as investor appetite for the loans remains at current levels.

Other regional banks, including Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group and Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial, are pursuing similar strategies.

The move to deal with troubled real estate loans is driven partly by federal regulators who have increased pressure on banks whose capital ratios fall below a certain level.

“I think the banks are coming to terms with the fact that, particularly, commercial real estate is declining in value and it’s just not coming back in the next three months or six months,” said Tony Plath, a banking professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. “It’s going to be a while before we’re out of the hole as far as real estate values are concerned.”

The auctions also are a sign that the gap between what the banks will take for the loans – and what investors will pay – is narrowing.

“I think all of the banks have reached the point where they realize they’re not going to get 80 cents on the dollar for the value of the loans they package,” Plath said. “They’re going to be looking at something like 35 or 40 cents on the dollar, which seems to be where these loan packages are selling.”

For property owners whose loans are included in these packages, the auctions could mean trouble.

If an investor buys a loan for 40 cents on the dollar, that means they can foreclose on the property, auction it off and still make a profit.

“The borrowers that are included in the package face much more rigorous collection efforts on behalf of the buyer,” Plath said. “(If you’re a borrower,) you really don’t want that loan sold.”

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area. Please visit http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com , www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com for your Orlando real estate needs. Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. Call us at 407-580-7011 to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.