Yesterday I had a call form our SR, it was the kind of call I had been waiting for. At last they will be breaking ground this week, the wait is finally over! I asked myself why I should be thrilled with them starting construction, wasn't that supposed to be a given? After all wasn't that why I was paying all that money?
My joy was short lived as today I received an updated Good Faith Estimate from our loan officer. The interest rates had spiked from 3.6% when the first estimate was given to 4.625%. Boy was I upset as that added an additional $300 to our monthly payments. Something has got to give! We have to drop some options.
Called our SR up and asked to drop at least 10k to lower our monthly payments so as to stay within our budget. She was quite receptive and said she would convey my request to her manager, but I shouldn't be too hopeful for certain things might just not be possible to drop at this time. Well, as she advised me not I am hopeful :-) I am already figuring out what must go!!!
Just found your blog - I linked in from another Victoria Falls I follow. Glad to hear that you're finally starting... but sad to hear that you too have fallen victim to the rising interest rates.
ReplyDeleteAs a suggestion, we did an extended lock on our interest rate (120 days) so we were able to lock in our rate the week we broke ground. This helped us to not have to worry about them CONTINUING to rise in the coming weeks. If it's something you're able to do (we went with NVR) you should definitely consider it.
We were actually able to buy down our rate from 4.25 to 3.65 which brought us back down to where our GFE numbers were.
I look forward to following your journey - as a suggestion, you should do a posting about all of your selections and floor plan upgrades, etc. Good luck!
-www.buildingwithryanhomes-parkplace.blogspot.com
The climbing interest rates are stressing me out too. It was at 3.5 or lower when we signed in April and now they are over 4...and just keep going up. I'm not sure when we can lock since my husband has been the one talking to the LO but it feels like gambling, blah.
ReplyDeletehttp://oakmontatmajestichills.blogspot.com/
I know what u mean Kristy. I've been really stressed out trying to figure out how to move forward. Well, I guess we'll have to buy down the interest rates, it makes a lot of sense to do so at this point.
ReplyDeleteWe are worried about interest rates too... I watch them daily and pray they go down more... they seem to have dropped a little bit the last few days... it was 4.2 when I looked earlier today. It was 3.2 when we started too. We are definitely going to be house poor... good thing we love it!
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha Kimberly, our SR told me there are lots of people in the same boat, I guess that was supposed to make me feel better. I under estimated the power of interest rates, it changes things way faster than the actual price. I'm optimistic though, I'm not locking in until I see a downward trend.
ReplyDeleteHey! Just found your blog. First of all, Congratulations!! :-)
ReplyDeleteAbout the interest rates, I think we all are in the same boat. We locked in at 4.75% but when we started looking it was 3.5%!! But its just one of those things, we can't help and we get use to! :-|
We are building in Franklin, TN http://ryanhomeslincolnshire.blogspot.com/
Anyway, Happy Building!!! :-)
Thanks S&P , I think we will be OK after buying down the interest rates hopefully.
ReplyDelete