why doest the yield curve for the US government lie below that for other borrowers?
339698
If you are refering to t-bills and bonds, then the rate at which the government borrows money is below the yeild curve of other borrowers. The rate at which the governmnet borrows money is at the Risk Free rate (rate on the on the 20 year note (it could be the 30 year bond)) because the government has never defulted on it's payments, and it would be very difficult for them to do so (since they can simply print money). When figuring out a rate of return required for non US government borrowers you need to include a risk premuim, which will raise the rate at which they can borrower money at.
922084
As the previous poster noted, LTV may mean nothing down the rouad since so many properties may not hold value if the market goes south. That is a concern facing banks and the anticipate 3 in 10 of properties going into foreclosure. Banks that will fair better are those that offered largely conventional products. Even if LTV means squat, the borrower in the property may still able to service the current debt. Some banks might offer borrowers an opprtunity to pay down the debt to a more conforming LTV  in exchange for a discounted rate. But for non conforming lenders who offered primarily creative type deals, will be hit pretty hard....\n\nTo mitiagte losses from R/E, many banks are re-aligning their portfolios.
839498
zero.......................\n\nnow the us government holding is diff and that includes fort knox which back treas dept.
185628
The prior poster was correct when they said that it depends on when the liens were filed - "first in time equals first in line" to get paid.  And in some cases, a lien may take priority over the lender (I know of several cases where there were delays in the mortgage company filing the mortgage, so liens took priority).
290596
many loans are "secured" with collateral -- a car, a house, etc. if a loan does not have any collateral involved (you have not provided the bank with a lien on anything for them to repossess), then the loan is "unsecured," and generally has a worse interest rate than one that is "secured."
356771
Currently the US is borrowing from China and Japan.  Saudi Arabia has a fair share as well.  But I think most of the debt is privately held in bonds.\n\nIf you want to dig up a complete list, you might try to look at the federal reserve's website.\n\nhttp://www.federalreserve.gov/\n\nI cant guarantee you will find anything, but there is a very large amount of information there that most people choose to ignore.
193792
Possibly because you haven't been paying the minimum interest payments. I know on my interest only mortgage, they allow me to do this without penalty, essentially increasing my principle each month. They actually highlight an amount on my statement that is less than my interest, trying to trick me into paying less today. It's all part of the scam. Read your statement carefully and pay more than just the interest due.
432864
No, not really.  A normal yield curve has short-term rates lower than long-term rates to compensate for risk.  Once in a while, with an inverted yield curve, it could mean a recession is coming because people have no confidence in long-term rates.
984177
As I understand the system, your loan must be fully-funded. If you think about it from the lenders point of view - the lender only wants to fund loans that have a reasonable probability of being repaid vs the rate of return (risk). A loan that is only 80% funded, for example, is probably not attractive enough to lenders to encourage them to lend.
554402
No, the actual cost of borrowing is less because you get the tax shield on the interest expense.  So, the cost of debt is (1 - tax rate) * interest expense.
113927
Not really.  Some lenders (like the one I work for) look for a minimum of 640, others 620. You are right on the borderline.  Anything from 640-699 is ok and 700 or above is considered very good and will likely get you better rates.  I would find out why you are a 630 (delinquencies reporting?  overextended credit cards?  a lot of new debt?) and work on correcting those issues.  Good luck!
313562
the answer to this is "probably" Mortgage rates are helped by a friendly Fed and the Federal Reserve is less likely to meddle in politics by doing any changing during an election cycle.  Better yet are the chances of no rate changes, however, due to the negative bend the Fed has been on for almost two years now, even a neutral stance would be great for all of us!
446766
The APR is the required method used by the government that allows people to compare the combination of rates and fees offered by different companies.  The APR is always higher than the interest rate because it takes the fees for the loan into the calculation.  The APR is only used for comparison and will never again factor into the loan.  If they want to reduce the interest rate by paying points up front this is a way to compare the different options by looking for the low APR.\n\nMost people are fine with this expl. because you mention it is the governments fault that this crazy number is on the TIL.  Also you mention it will never again affect the loan after they close. \n\nGood luck this is the hardest question in all of lending.
139710
The deficit is money owed by the government to several different places.  Examples are, U.S. citizens, U.S. companies, Japan, China, other goverment agencies that didn't use precious budgets...  Interest is paid on this balance every year.  As the national debt grows so too does the interest paid.  Because the government also makes the money, they could in theory simply print more money and give it to their creditors.  If they did that, the U.S dollar would become weaker compared to other countries money.  Cutting a pie into more slices without making the pie any bigger will mean each slice of pie is smaller.  Same principle applies to monetary policy.\n\nAs the government makes more money, inflation kicks in.  A dollar in 1940 could buy a lot more than it does today.  People that invest in things like banks and the stock market expect to beat inflation and even get more.  For instance inflation runs about 3 percent per year on average.  So on any investment you need to get more than 3 percent return or you will loose purchasing power.  \n\nTo pull it all together.  Government gets to a point that interst owed on national debt is higher than GDP.  This means that we can not make more in a year than we owe. (Not likely to happen but proves a point)  The only way the government can pay its debt is by doubling the amount of money in circulation.  This would cause every dollar to loose 50 % purchasing power.  The only way you could convince me to save my money rather than spend it would be by offering more than 50 % rate of return.  If a bank is offering lets say 55 % interest rates then they too have to make more return on their investment.  The people they loan the money to (home owners through morgages) would have to pay more than 55 % on there home loan.  People would stop borrowing money at such a high rate, demand for houses would fall.  The supply of houses would stay about the same.  Decrease demand holding supply the same would lower the price of homes.  Thus create a market crash
389034
This is false. Mortgage rates are determined by the bond rates which are not seasonal at all.
549024
There is a benchmark rate that banks and financial institutions use to their top customers, prime.  It is often linked to the Federal Reserve's interest rate for banks to borrow from the government.  To be sub--or below--prime is simply that you don't qualify for the best rates.  It will cost you more to borrow money because there is a higher risk that the money they loan won't all come back.
409357
Because the longer you loan someone money(even a bank) the more risk you are taking.  The biggest risk of a CD is that your rate will not keep up with inflation.\n\nMortgage rates are the same way, a 15 year loan has lower rates than a 30 year loan.