Porting is for you if you get better rates in doing so. Porting is carrying over the contract to the new property. If you sell the current house with the equity and apply a new mortgage, you will be able to save on payments especially if the rates are lower now. You can then have a substantial down payment on the smaller house, have a lower rate mortgage and hopefull have some cash left.

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What is the difference in rates between a homeowner's mortgage (someone who lives in the home) and a real estate investor mortgage (someone who rents out the property)? interest rates.....

Usually its 1.5% to the YSP (yield spread premium). Lenders pay the brokers a fee to do the loan, this is in addition to what a broker charges you. So lets say the lender wants to make 1.5% in YSP. So they look at rates and say okay today 4.75 is 1.5% (paying) that would be for a primary residence. Then you have an add on fee. So the add on fee for an investor is 1.5%. So at 4.75 the broker isnt getting a dime. So they look at 4.875. It pays 2.00%, now the broker is making 0.5% and they want 1.5% So they look at 5.125% and that pays 2.5%... They still have to pay the hit for the investor of 1.5%, so now the broker makes 1%. Some brokers might do it others might say okay what is 5.5% and that pays back 3%. Now the broker can cover the 1.5% hit they take on the YSP and still make 1.5% from the bank. I made up these rates and wasnt looking at a rate sheet but the process is the same. The difference is 1.5% to the YSP which will change the rate. You can pay it upfront and get a better rate or have the lender/broker change it for you in how they get paid. On top of that down payment will be higher. Plan on 20%. Fannie and Freddie Mac allow for a 10% down payment but require mortgage insurance. I do not know of any mortgage insurance company that will give mortgage insurance to an investor. So plan on 20% down so you dont have to have mortgage insurance.

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Can you help me find a website showing how the mortgage rate affects the # of houses purchased in years 2000- 2007 found mortgage rates for those years but i can't find how many houses were purchased each year.

You might try HUD for that statistic. They would not have every home, but will have the majority of them.

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Thank you for your time.

Non owner occupied loan rates are always higher than mortgages for your primary residence. An exception to this is if you are buying a second home which the loan program will designate that it has to be so many miles (usually 50-70 miles) from your primary residence and you are to occupy the home at some point during the year. Most non owner occupied loans are for people that want to rent out the property for income and are viewed as having more risk.

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I've been hearing a lot about the "benefits" of interest only mortgages, but i'm not 100% convinced that this is the way to go. they say that people should get interest only loans and put the remainder of what you would normally pay (on the mortgage) in some type of investment. should you use your mortgage like this, or should you pay the mortgage off quickly???

Interest only mortgages are a good way for people to buy more than they could otherwise afford. HOWEVER, using this type of loan you pay only the interest on the amount borrowed and do not pay down the debt you've incurred. In other words, you don't see the benefit of paying down the debt - you don't gain additional value equity by paying off the loan. In an appreciating real estate market, and at the end of the loan term, you'll have more valuable real estate but less to show for it. The entire amount of the loan will be due and you'll only get the difference between the loan amount and the sale price. In a traditional loan you could take advantage of the market by paying off the loan AND realizing profit from equity buildup. In a declining market, you've lost money - from paying the interest on the loan and from falling real estate prices. Then what do you have to show for your investment? To the theory that you could invest your money elsewhere - that's always an option. As an investor you have to determine where you will get the best return on your dollar. Traditionally, real estate doesn't appreciate as quickly as other investment vehicles, however, it often doesn't come with the risks of other investments. Only you can judge your tolerance to risk. Lastly, because real estate tends to be a stable investment, you would be better served to pay down the debt as quickly as possible. The number crunchers will often tell you that by making 1 extra payment a year on a traditional 30 year home mortgage will take 8 years off the loan. This more dependent on prevailing interest rates, but the end result is the same. You will see accelerated equity buildup and will lower your debt load over time. This is the best way to go, provided you can afford it.

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I own a two-family home, aka duplex. i live in one unit and rent out the other. i am trying to refinance my mortgage and my mortgage broker is quoting a 3/8 of a point rate difference on a 20-year mortgage. is this difference resonable?

3/8 rate difference compared to what? A single family home? If you are getting a Conventional loan, today, I have .25% difference between single family & 2 unit owner occupied. So you are being quoted .125% difference. Check around. The FHA rate is the same for one or two unit but you would have upfront mortgage insurance & monthly. Sorry---I forgot to add that LTV will make a difference on the Conventional loan. The lower the LTV the less difference. I was using 80% in the example above.

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Thank you in advance. here is the link. http://www.us.hsbc.com/1/2/3/person al/home-loans/mortgage/mortgage-rat es/nat-rates

APR is a standard way of representing a cash flow resulting from a mortgage transaction. To explain this, consider a simple 30 year loan with rate of 5% (this is not APR, do not confuse the two). You can buydown the rate by paying points. You can change the compounding interval for the same 5% rate (compounding daily instead on monthly would result in higher interest costs). You can change the lenght of the loan, number of payments, introduce a teaser rate for the first year, a large closing fee at the end of the mortgage, etc. The thing is, after just a few of these manipulations, you can end up with a loan that is essentially the same, but does not have a single number that is the same as the original deal. Because of complexity of the effects of changes in various terms, it's very hard to compare various offers. This is why APR was invented. The idea is that the entire cashflow with whatever terms offered is converted on paper into an equivalent 1-year transaction with its share of origination fees and other gotchas. This allows a direct apple-to-apple comparison between various deals.

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Which one do you actually pay each month?

APR includes up-front fees and costs that are rolled into the loan. Different lenders do this in different ways, so it's not really a good comparison tool. More important is the interest rate and the total closing costs. The interest rate charged on the loan is the 'rate', not the APR.

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I am considering refinancing and i see a mortgage rate of 5.75% and an apr of 6%

The Federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) requires lenders to disclose APR, or annual percentage rate. There is only one acceptable method for Federal compliance. If your mortgage interest rate is at 5.75%, and your payment is a given amount, then the total amount of your mortgage, less any additional fees you are paying to the lender such as points, are deducted from your loan amount and the lower amount that results is used to back-calculate what the interest rate would be if your given payment were used to pay back the smaller amount. That rate is your APR. Theoretically this allows you to compare different combinations of rates and points, but in practice it isn't so useful. An example: Your loan amount is $100,000 at 5.75%. That would make your payment for 30 years 583.57 per month. If you paid two points to the lender, then using $98,000 and a payment of 583.57 your APR would be 5.937%.

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What is the difference between a fixed rate mortgage and adjustable rate mortgage?

With a fixed rate mortgage, the interest rate never varies and your monthly payment stays the same for the life of the loan (excluding increases due to rises in real estate taxes). With an adjustable rate mortgage (or ARM), you usually start out with a lower interest rate than on a fixed rate mortgage, but the interest rates go up (or down) after a period of time and consequently affect the amount of your monthly payment.