The Mortgage Moment

To see which method gives tax filers the “biggest bang for the buck”, ABC’s Good Morning America recently compared three popular tax preparation services:

1. TurboTax
2. H & R Block
3. Personal accountant

In declaring TurboTax the “winner”, the 4-minute video glossed over several important tax-related items.

The first is that true tax planning cannot happen in a 3-hour stint in front of a computer. Tax planning a year-round activity.

The second is that all personal financial decisions should be evaluated for their tax implications. That can’t happen without a personal accountant that knows your tax history and understands your financial goals.

The third is that filing income taxes is a personal event. The “winning” tax preparation method for the family on TV may not be what’s best for your family.

If you’d like a referral to a trusted accountant, please ask me. Filing your taxes for cheap today does not mean it will be the lowest cost to you long-term.

More commonly called “points”, discount points are up-front fees charged by mortgage lenders in exchange for lower mortgage rates.

The cost of one point is one percent on the loan size and discount points appear on Line 802 of the HUD-1 Settlement Statement.

As a general guideline, each point paid lowers a mortgage lender’s offered interest rate by 0.250%.

For example, a $200,000 home loan offered at 6.000% can be had for 5.750% if the borrower agrees to make an up-front payment of one point ($2,000).

In addition to lowering your interest rate, discount points (as well as other closing costs) may be tax-deductible, too. Therefore, be sure to provide any settlement statements from the previous calendar year to your accountant during Tax Season.

FHA stands for Federal Housing Administration, a by-product of the National Housing Act of 1934 and now a sub-group within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The FHA is not a lender nor does it build homes.

The FHA exists to insure lenders against loss in the event that a homeowner defaults on a mortgage.

Mortgages backed by FHA are often called “FHA loans” even though it’s somewhat of a misnomer. A more appropriate name would be “FHA-insured” loans because that better describes the FHA’s function.

With the FHA’s guarantee, mortgage lenders are enticed to make loans on which they would otherwise pass and the explicit backing from the government holds mortgage rates low for borrowers.

FHA loans are often used by borrowers with less-than-20-percent downpayments and, therefore, tend to require mortgage insurance payments.

For FHA loans above 80%, mortgage insurance rates are 0.50% annually (paid monthly) with an up-front payment of 1.5% against the loan size and due at closing.

Homeowners with 15-year fixed FHA loans, however, are exempt from the annual insurance payments.

For all homeowners, though, when the loan balance reaches 78 percent of the home’s value, the annual MI is no longer required.

Mortgage rates for FHA loans are typically higher than comparable conforming mortgages but because of new, risk-based pricing from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, homeowners with credit scores under 680 are finding FHA a viable alternative.

And often with lower rates.

Source
FHA Loan
Wikipedia, April 1, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FHA_loan