Mortgage Industry News and Events

Don’t wait til your credit score is perfect. There’s an old proverb that goes “the best is the mortal enemy of the good enough.” This means that waiting for conditions to be absolutely perfect can be costlier and more counterproductive than acting boldly in the moment when conditions are [...]

Real estate is a time-tested long-term wealth generator. Few other investments offer the same qualities in combination as real estate does: • Current rental income/cash flow • Potential for price appreciation • Tangible value • Built-in hedge against inflation • Ready availability of leverage • Tax deductions for depreciation [...]

For many years, buying a home has been difficult for small business owners, contractors, and the self-employed. If you own a small business or you're one of the millions of self-employed and gig economy workers in Hawaii and the mainland U.S., take heart: we know you’re out there—and [...]

For most families, their home is the single biggest financial asset. That’s especially true here in Hawaii, where the average home value now exceeds $800,000. That means that unless you insure it properly, a disaster that affects your home could be a financial catastrophe from which you and your family [...]

As Island residents know, extended family living arrangements are routine here. Hawaii’s deep traditions of ohana and the high cost of housing here combine to make it very common for multiple generations of families to live on the same plot and under the same roof. Many kama'aina have [...]

Your debt-to-income ratio is a measure of how big your monthly debt service obligations are as a percentage of your income. It’s one of the most important things lenders consider when assessing your application for a mortgage: The higher your monthly debt payments and the lower your income, the [...]

Many people become worried or discouraged about getting a mortgage when the Federal Reserve is in the news raising interest rates. Mortgage rates have been increasing gradually over the last year: The 30-year mortgage rate climbed from 3.99% on Jan. 11 to 4.63% on Dec. 13th, according to Freddie [...]

Yes, you can get a mortgage even with less-than-stellar credit. But it does cost more. Indeed, it costs quite a bit more, over the life of a 30-year loan. A recent study estimates that mediocre or bad credit can cost borrowers anywhere from $50,000 to $130,000 more over the span [...]

A new program from Fannie Mae made it a lot easier to save on interest by refinancing student loans. The new program, the Student Loan Cash-Out Refinance, streamlines the process and makes it easier to qualify for a mortgage to pay off an existing student loan. Under the old rules, [...]

Among main mortgage products, only applications of “non-conforming” increased on a quarterly basis in the third quarter of 2018, according to a new ranking and analysis by “Inside Non-conforming Markets.” The sector includes non-qualified mortgages, non-prime loans, mortgages with alternative documentation and any other non-jumbo mortgages not eligible for [...]