What Closing Costs Come with a Home Loan? | Mortgage Banker Bay Area

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Closing Costs When Buying or Refinancing a Home

When you talk to a lender, they usually prepare a "Good Faith Estimate" of closing costs.  Sometimes they will give it to you right away, but they are only required to mail it to you within three business days of application.

Because the lender is the one who prepares the estimate, many buyers associate all the closing costs with the lender.  This is not correct.  The lender is only preparing an estimate of the costs you may incur when buying or refinancing and is not required to list all potential costs.  Nor does the lender know what all the costs are actually going to be.  The estimate is an educated guess based on past experience.  Some things will get left out.  Always anticipate the actual costs are going to be more than the estimate.

When comparing two lenders, don't look at the "total" cost.  Only compare the costs actually charged by each lender.  Both lenders are only making informed guesses about costs charged by others. The next page is a detailed summary of costs you may have to pay when you buy or refinance your home. The costs are listed in the order that they should appear on a Good Faith Estimate you obtain from a mortgage lender. There are two broad categories of closing costs. Non-recurring closing costs are items that are paid once and you never pay again. Recurring closing costs are items you pay time and again over the course of home ownership, such as property taxes and homeowner’s insurance.  

Some of the items that appear here do not traditionally appear on a lender's Good Faith Estimate and lenders are not required to show all of these items.

Until Next time Here is to your success! Jason Wheeler 925-285-2172 | Come to a FREE Bay Are Event |

Aug. 6 Market Commentary -- The number of Americans filing claims for jobless
benefits fell last week, a sign more employers have stopped paring staff as the recession eases.
Applications dropped by 38,000 to 550,000 in the week ended Aug. 1, figures
from the Labor Department showed today in Washington, marking the fifth consecutive
week of fewer than 600,000 claims. The total number of people collecting unemployment insurance rose.
The pace of job cuts has slowed even as unemployment is projected to exceed 10
percent by early next year. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News say a report
tomorrow will show the jobless rate jumped to the highest in 26 years in July.
Stagnating wages and falling home values also mean consumer spending, 70 percent of the economy, will be slow to recover.
“Labor market conditions are gradually improving,” Zach Pandl, an economist at
Nomura Securities International Inc. in New York, said before the report.
Nonetheless, he said, “claims have to continue to fall from these levels before we can expect a rebound in consumer spending.”
Economists forecast claims would drop to 580,000 from a previously estimated
584,000, according to the median of 40 projections in a Bloomberg News survey.
Estimates ranged from 550,000 to 600,000.
The four-week moving average, a less-volatile measure than weekly initial
claims, fell to 555,250 from 560,000 the prior week.