by KYW's John Ostapkovich -
There's a mortgage refinancing frenzy underway but only for some homeowners. Those who owe the most money have the least chance of getting a new deal.
Thomas Kuranda, president of Kuranda Financial of Wayne, says the default problem has been toughest among jumbo mortgages, those above the magic number $417,000, so not conforming to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines. This means lending that much money is riskier than lending less:
The banks that used to do this, Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, SunTrust, they don't want to do jumbo paper because there's nowhere to unload it, so if they want to sell it they're going to have to charge 1.5 points, two points over the conforming rate."
Kuranda says his firm offers a jumbo adjustable mortgage but he has to tell nine out of ten callers looking to refinance a large loan that there's nothing to do until this problem is fixed.
This post was first run on 1060 AM, on air, and now can be found online @ KYW1060.com.
Weekly Comment
