For those of you buying condos in the big apple, you now qualify for the Jumbo Conforming loan amounts. This would include loans over 417,000 and under 729,750.

This is a good thing and a bad thing at once. The good things are you will get a lower interest rate than the average jumbo loan which can be around 8%. The other good thing is that if your loan qualifies for a FNMA approval, any bank will buy your loan. We are seeing each lender has its own quirks.

Although the interest rates for these products will be below 7%, they are still higher than the average conforming loan rate of 5.75%. This is based on a 30 year fixed rate.

There are a few bad points to keep in mind that can take the “O” out of your joy:

• The minimum FICO score is 660
• The loan to value is limited in some cases at 80%
• If your LTV is over 60% and your Fico score is under 720, there will be points charged accordingly
• There will be limited cash out in the case of a refinance. In other words, they do not want them.

So, the loans are here, but only for a limited amount of time. Not sure how many folks they will really be able to help, except for the perfect high end buyer. At least they can say, they tried!

Two very important facts: they do not include coops and are only available through December 15^th, 2008. Big Deal!

Dale Siegel