Mortgage rates are down- Refinance activity way up in Philadelphia/Main Line area

My name is Brad Burton and I'm a Mortgage Loan Officer located in Radnor, PA - a suburb of Philadelphia known as the Main Line. The Main Line area and its surroundings have remained pretty steady despite the turbulent market. As with most of the country- we have seen an enormous amount of activity in the past few weeks...mostly with people looking to refinance. It is a great refinance market as rates for conforming fixed rate loans have plummeted from over 6% down to the 5.25% range. Jumbo rates are also coming down and this should spur even more refinance applications especially in the Philadelphia/Main Line area where there are a lot of jumbo loans.

The Stimulus package only increased our conforming loan limit from $417,000 to $420,000 - thus it had no real effect- especially on refis. Well, all of that has changed lately thanks to the recent drop in mortgage rates.

I'm getting a lot of calls regarding all of the news that mortgages rates will be reduced to 4.5%. People need to realize that from what is being discussed- this will not apply to refinancing only to purchase loans. However, rates are already extremely low. I just refinanced a client in Philadelphia who went from 6.625% to 5.25% on a loan just over $400,000 and they will save over $250 per month. There are a lot of opportunities for savings out there- especially for those that bought earlier in the year when rates were 6% and above.

I would love to run numbers for anyone interested so we can see what they can save!!!!