Mortgage Information

If you're like most buyers, a home is the most expensive purchase you'll ever make, and you'll probably need some form of financing.

There are many lending institutions that offer a variety of mortgage products. Financing options and rates can vary widely, so it is important to do your research and shop around to ensure you get the mortgage that best meets your needs at the best price.

We would be happy to refer you to a very good mortgage company  in Cape Coral, or to help you in any other way we can to secure the best possible rate for your home purchase.

Use the mortgage calculators below to assist you in making some decisions around financing your new home.

Mortgage Qualification Calculator

This calculator will help you determine how much money you qualify to borrow. The results are informal. You will be subject to a credit approval from your financial institution taking into consideration existing debt load, amount of down payment, income and other variables.

Mortgage Payment Calculator & Amortization Table

This calculator will help you determine what your mortgage payments will be based on purchase price, interest rate and mortgage term, as well as other factors. The amortization table shows what the interest and principal payments will be over the term of the mortgage.

 

Now Is The Time to Buy a New Home

Despite recent fluctuations, the 30-yr mortgage rate still remains near historic lows.

 

UPDATES:

 

New FHA Rule for Condo Loans
New FHA rule will make it harder to obtain a condo home loan

It may be a buyer's market for those looking to purchase a South Florida condominium, but a new FHA rule putting an end to "spot approvals" for home loans may burst the shopping bubble and make it much more difficult to qualify for a loan.

By extension, the same rule may also mean more bad news for condo sellers, since it impedes buyers' ability to purchase.

What is happening: Beginning Nov. 1, a new Federal Housing Administration rule goes into effect that disallows a loan process called "spot approvals," which gave loan underwriters the authority to approve individual units rather than an entire building.

The reason such authority was so helpful to buyers is the cost and paperwork for a condo association to get an entire building approved by the FHA is onerous at best, costing tens of thousands of dollars for appraisals, structural engineering reports and other reports.

Spot approvals, in comparison, only require an association representative to spend 15 minutes filling out a single-page form. Those loans are prized by buyers because they generally have lower interest rates and require much lower down payments, about 3.5 percent of the purchase price compared with conventional bank loans, which may require up to 30 percent down.

Now, without spot approvals, condo buyers and owners will not be able to get an FHA loan for units in a non-approved building and will have to rely on conventional bank loans or pay cash.

What can be done: HOA Board members should check the federal Housing and Urban Development (the department that oversees the FHA) website https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condlook.cfm to determine whether their condominium complex is on HUD's approved list.