As this article appears behind a paywall at wsj.com/articles/the-tax-breaks-for-homes-that-help-you-now-11596792602,
the full text is below.
August 7, 2020
By Laura Saunders
The coronavirus pandemic has had profound effects on real estate, and the sudden shifts make it a good time to delve into tax breaks available to home buyers and homeowners.
Why do I need title insurance when I refinance my mortgage? |
With mortgage rates hitting their highest level in two years, the rush to refinance has slowed to more of a stroll.
As of the end of June, refinancing activity represented 64 percent of all mortgage applications, the lowest volume since May 2011, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The rise in rates by “better than a point” since early May has effectively killed off a lot of the refinancing business, in what amounts to a “purely an interest-rate-driven decision,” said Keith T. Gumbinger, the vice president of HSH.com, a financial publisher. But getting into a new mortgage still makes sense for some categories of homeowners.
The most obvious candidates are borrowers whose rates are 5.5 percent or higher.Another group of potential borrowers are those who found their homes under water value-wise but who've built up equity because of the rise in prices.
“Like millions of other homeowners, William D. Compton would like to refinance his mortgage so that he pays less each month for his three-bedroom house in Gulf Breeze, Fla. With the savings, he figures he could afford a few extra movies and restaurant dinners or he could buy a new stove and brakes for his car, purchases he has postponed because finances are so tight.“Although he would appear to be a good candidate, Mr. Compton, 57, has been turned down twice for a federal refinancing program aimed at homeowners like him.“Still, he has renewed hope. That’s because the government is expanding the Home Affordable Refinance Program, which was meant to help homeowners whose mortgages are backed by the government and whose home values have declined sharply, even below what the borrowers owe. Mr. Compton is one of those underwater homeowners.”
"could help four million to five million homeowners whose home values had plunged. Yet just 900,000 borrowers — whose loans are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored housing finance companies — have successfully refinanced through the program. Starting early next month, though, banks will begin using new criteria intended to make more borrowers eligible: raising the ceiling on how much owners can borrow over the value of their home as well as relaxing rules that might force banks to take back bad loans from the government. In announcing the change, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, carefully eased expectations, suggesting about 900,000 more homeowners would be helped, roughly doubling the size of the program to date.”
The Obama administration and a housing regulator on Monday unveiled a revamped home-loan refinancing program, aiming to aid hundreds of thousands of Americans whose homes have fallen in value in the wake of the housing bust.
The plan represents the latest federal effort to tackle a key impediment to the U.S. economy--a stagnant housing market caused in part by elevated numbers of homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth. It came after numerous Obama administration efforts to stabilize the housing market have struggled in an economy with stubbornly high unemployment.
The overhaul will let borrowers refinance their mortgages regardless of how far their home prices have plunged in any given market, eliminating a previous restriction that shut out homeowners who owed more than 125% of their homes’ current value.
Officials estimated that the changes will help families save $2,500 or more, on average, annually.
The plan is also designed to streamline the refinancing process by eliminating appraisals and extensive underwriting requirements for most borrowers, as long as homeowners are current on their mortgage payments.
The refinancing program is open to homeowners whose mortgages are owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae (FNMA) or Freddie Mac (FMCC), the two government-controlled mortgage giants whose rescue three years ago has cost taxpayers $141 billion to date.
Regulators are revamping a program rolled out in 2009, the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, which lets borrowers with homes whose values have dropped to refinance. So far, only 894,000 borrowers have used it, of which just 70,000 are significantly underwater.
Fannie and Freddie will issue final pricing information and other technical details by Nov. 15, and some banks have said they could begin taking applications under the new program by as soon as Dec. 1. Mortgage insurers have also agreed to make it much easier to transfer existing mortgage-insurance coverage, which has blocked many borrowers from refinancing.Read the full story.
Dear Debt Adviser, I am considering refinancing my mortgage. My plan is to take cash out in order to pay off my credit card debt. I owe $80,000 on credit cards, which is actually more than the $63,000 I owe on the house. Would this be a well-advised move, in your opinion? I can very easily handle the new monthly payment. With the savings from not making credit card payments I can make additional payments on the mortgage principal. My current mortgage has 11 years remaining, and the new mortgage would be for 15 years. So in other words, I'd be paying my house off in about the same time frame, anyway. I appreciate your advice. -- RobertBefore he answers, Mr. Bucci has to pick himself up from the floor. Here are the highlights from his response.
Dear Robert, Before I answer your question, I must make a comment: $80,000 on your credit cards?! Because I am the Debt Adviser, I can't help but address your $80,000 in credit card debt first. That is a huge amount of debt. Before you do anything, I want you to seriously analyze how you acquired so much debt. Before doing anything, you must be very sure that you can live day to day without racking up another $80,000 in new debt after any refinancing.
First, remember that the refinancing will not really pay off anything. It will just move your debt around. Furthermore, it could end up hurting you ultimately. That's because your $80,000 in credit card bills will be converted from an unsecured debt to a mortgage secured by your home.The real message here is that Robert could lose his home over a debt that could be cleared in bankruptcy if everything hit the fan.
But there are refinancing options. Let's say you decide to do a traditional 15-year fixed-rate refinance of your existing mortgage with a cash-out option to pay off the $80,000 credit card debt. If so, I would encourage you to organize your budget so you can repay the loan in five to seven years. As an alternative, depending on the current rate of interest on your existing mortgage loan, you might consider using a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, instead of obtaining a new, larger first mortgage. The HELOC interest rate would likely be lower. You should be able to pay off the debt in a shorter period of time. That would save you on interest payments. It will also reduce the time period where you'll be most at risk to financial surprises like illness or a layoff. My experience is that as soon as you make yourself vulnerable to a problem, it shows up.
A traditional refinance may be the best option if your goals are to: first, get a lower rate on your primary mortgage, and second, pay off the credit cards. However, if you already have a fairly low interest rate on your mortgage, a HELOC might be the better option. I want you to lose your debt, not your home. So here's an added note of caution: You are taking on added risk with either a HELOC or a mortgage. You are moving a rather large debt from unsecured terms -- credit card accounts -- to a secured loan using your home as collateral. If for any reason you default on your new loan, your home is at jeopardy. I've seen enough unexpected things happen to otherwise smart people because they took on a risk they didn't understand.
There is also a tax risk. If the unthinkable should happen and you go into foreclosure, the $80,000 used to pay off your credit cards would not qualify for debt forgiveness under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act. The result: You would owe income taxes on the $80,000 when you can least afford it.
“When interest rates are low, plenty of homeowners rush to refinance before evaluating the true consequences of their actions. A mortgage refinance can benefit some homeowners, particularly if they intend to stay in their home for the long term or if they can significantly reduce their interest rate. Sometimes, though, a mortgage refinance can be the wrong move.”1. Not comparing the real rate.
“Borrowers who have little or no equity may qualify for a refinance under the government's Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, available to those with a current mortgage owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.”2. Choosing the wrong loan
“While many borrowers compare loan offers from more than one lender, they can also shop for title services and save hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars on their loan.”Check at least three lenders. Start with the servicer that has your loan now.
“As least until recently, we’ve been in the midst of a refinancing boom. So consumers applying for refinancings should at least expect some delays.
“While lenders are leery about releasing details about how long refinancings are taking to close today versus a year ago, some are willing to admit that processing times are longer today for a number of reasons, including regulatory changes and historically low rates.”I’m not sure of the “refinance boom” since most home values in New Jersey fell dramatically over the past two years.
“Kris Yamamoto, a spokeswoman for Bank of America, said in an e-mail that the longer processing times are the result of the “dramatic changes” the mortgage environment has undergone in recent years, including “new underwriting standards being enforced and regulatory changes enacted” to ensure that consumers can safely afford their mortgages. She also pointed to the low rates.”How about the family that can afford its current mortgage but wishes to take advantage of a lower rate? Unless you had 30% equity, or more, in your home when you took your last mortgage, you can pretty much forget about it since home values have fallen as much as that number. Lenders will not make 100% loan to value mortgages despite encouragement by the Federal government.
Although I refinanced my mortgage less than two years ago, interest rates are so low that I plan to refinance again. What costs can I deduct when I refinance for a second time?Folks who refinance and refinance, again, are called serial refinancers. We saw the phenomenon grow during the days of sub-prime lending. But with interest rates now so low, it may make sense to refinance sooner rather than later.
Serial refinancers get an additional tax break on top of the usual mortgage-interest and property-tax deduction. You can deduct the points you pay to get a mortgage in the year you buy a home -- even if the seller paid the points for you (a point is equal to 1% of the loan). You can also deduct points paid to refinance a mortgage, but normally that deduction must be spread out over the life of the loan. So if you paid two points ($5,000 in this example) on a $250,000, 30-year mortgage, you can deduct just $166.67 per year for 30 years.The income tax consequences for making a mistake are not light. So caution is in order.
Investment funds are buying billions of dollars’ worth of home loans, discounted from the loans’ original value. Then, in what might seem an act of charity, the funds are helping homeowners by reducing the size of the loans.What's different about these loans is that the new loans are made through government programs.
For instance, a fund might offer to pay $40 million for a $100 million block of mortgages from a bank in distress. Then the fund could arrange to have some of those loans refinanced into mortgages backed by an agency like the F.H.A. and then sold to an agency like Ginnie Mae. The trick is to persuade the homeowners to refinance those mortgages, by offering to reduce the amounts the homeowners owe.
The Home Affordable Refinance Program gives up to 4 to 5 million homeowners with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac an opportunity to re-finance into more affordable monthly payments. The Home Affordable Modification Program commits $75 billion to keep up to 3 to 4 million Americans in their homes by preventing avoidable foreclosures.
Posts
All Comments
