MORTGAGE RATES

As a former Loan Officer and Operations Manager, I have to tell you that you're not going to get any meaningful information by randomly comparing rates with others - there are far too many factors involved - your loan type, credit score, loan-to-value, income level and documentation, property type, etc, etc, etc.

I would advise you to talk to a few different LOs at different banks and brokerages. Get Good Faith Estimates and compare rates and fees, paying particular attention to Loan Origination points and Loan Discount points. Most importantly, trust your gut when it comes to the LO - don't work with someone that feels slimy just because s/he's quoting you the best all-around package. Also, if you're looking for a refi, the first place you should start is with your current lender - you can often "streamline" with them and avoid a ton of fees and often get a lower rate than switching to a new lender.

I work with my husband who is a mortgage broker. That rate seems high
without knowing the details of your transaction.

For info, on Friday we locked in a client at 5.75% with zero points to the bank or to us for a 60 day period. The loan was under the FNMA
conforming limit which is $417,000.

If your loan is larger than $417,000 the rate will be higher. In the past the difference between conforming loan size and jumbo was about
.25-.375% higher on the rate, however, due to the subprime crises,
the rates on loans over $417,000 are much higher. If it is a jumbo loan, the rate of 6.5% will have points on it.

i can HIGHLY recommend manhattan mortgage.

call victor angel in their brooklyn heights office.

i promise you won't be disappointed. i used him last year on my first home purchase and he is terrific. even emailed me recently to see if i wanted to refinance because rates are down from when i purchased.

i also disagree with another poster...i bought a co-op in a small building and absolutely love it! best thing i've ever done is buy here.

belzjm wrote:
i also disagree with another poster...i bought a co-op in a small building and absolutely love it! best thing i've ever done is buy here.

I think that's great but smaller projects can have problems. A friend bought into a 3 unit condo where the majority of the common area was assigned to the 1 largest unit, effectively leaving him with no say in the management of the building.

Smaller projects are more likely to be self managed so you don't have the advantage of being able to afford a management company which can help you with day to day operations and the mundane tasks of hiring vendors to clean the building and keep the boiler running.

With smaller projects if one unit defaults on the maintenance there are fewer units to amortize the missing payments over.

i second victor angel. totally professional, on the up and up.