May the year of the rat will bring you and your
family health, happiness and prosperity.

There are some changes for the mortgage industry(for those
who want to refi and purchase):
1)It will be harder to get 2nd loan in the wholesale market.
Especially for those who makes less than 15% down payment.

2)The Congress and President will approve the new Conforming
Loan Limit. The limit will be good temporary till 12/31/2008.
It was proposed that the new limit will be $625k nationwide,
$700k or more in the high cost areas(729k for FHA loans).

I know lots of home owners are very interested in
this change. Like I said before, only those who want longer
term loan programs(30 yr fixed, 15 yr fixed, 10 yr fixed)
will benefit from this change and those who has 75.01%-80%
CLTV will benefit from this change as well.

3)Don\'t expect the same rate for those conforming loans.
You may see a higher rate than those real <=417k conforming
loans.

4)The trend of the interest rate.
We may see the long term interest rates go up because of
low us dollar value. Short term rate should keep at this
level or lower as long as the Fed continues to cut the
rates.

Happy Chinese New Year.