the buzz log

If you are among the privileged, impacted few where homes—even in this stalled market—average around a half-million dollars and you want to buy one, then you may have a loan application deadline coming up...if you haven't missed it already.

Looks like some may already know, given the late Search surge for "jumbo loan," "jumbo mortgage, and "conforming loan limits". Before getting into deadlines, it's time for a look back to when the federal government took its first baby steps in economic stimulations...

Traditionally, to borrow for homes worth more than $417,000, people had to either take out jumbo loans—normally charged a higher interest rate than so-called conforming loans—or succumb to those oh-so-alluring adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). Once the initial interest rates expired on those pesky ARMs, of course, all sorts of agony was unleashed.

Then Congress raised the limits on regular fixed-rate loans so that homebuyers could escape those grasping ARMs. But raising the limit apparently didn't mean lowering the interest rates for a while and, as Bankrate reported back in March, the restrictions were about as tough as the first-child clause at the Bank of Rumpelstiltskin.

Now back to the deadlines: Bankrate reports that by January 1, buyers or existing homeowners who want a loan somewhere in the neighborhood of $625,500 to $729,750 need to apply before Dec. 31, if their lender hasn't already locked in rates. That means people in about 25 states will be scrambling to gather together paperwork to get approvals done before the new year rolls in.

However, just to make things exciting, the Boston Globe reminds people that the Housing and Economic Recovery Act will kick in "permanent jumbo size limits" which—as in all things in life—will help some, but not others. The article gives some complicated but detailed advice on how to sift through the different qualifications and rate disparities.

With an ever-changing mortgage landscape, it's good to keep up-to-date on who's loaning what, jumbo or not. For those searching for details on "fha loan limits" and "fha loan rates," NPR takes a look at Federal Housing Administration loans (FHA). The News Observer examines the impossible dream of no down payment (often for rural residents or those in the military) via the United States Department of Agriculture and the Veteran Administration. Bankrate compares conventional, VA, and FHA loans.