Danger Of Waiting For Rates To Fall; Foreclosures Shoot Dangerously High; What’s A Recert of Value?; Actual DSCR Rates

The 10-Year Treasury yield shot way up today – unexpectedly. The reasons? Higher oil prices sparking inflation fears, and a move into stocks and out of bonds (flight from “safety” into “risk assets”).

I bring this up because we have well over 100 borrowers in our database who easily qualify for no-cost refinances that would save them thousands of dollars – but they don’t want to execute because they are convinced rates will fall further.

Sigh…

Hence, I am going to repeat the reason why borrowers should always refi as soon as the numbers work:

1. Refis are usually free, and are much easier nowadays, requiring far less effort and time.
2. Borrowers can always refi again for free if rates fall further.
3. There is no guarantee rates will fall further; please remember the fall of 2024 – when everyone expected rates to fall further, and they went UP by OVER 1% (and thousands of borrowers missed out on easy savings). And see today too. Nobody knows which way rates will go.
4. Presidents and the Fed can’t control rates – no matter what they say or do. The bond market controls long-term rates – pure and simple – and it responds to growth and inflation expectations. And, as I remind readers often, if President Trump’s economic growth predictions come true, rates will shoot higher in response, not lower.

Once again, I am not trying to be self-serving. This is just another reminder to refi when the numbers work – no matter which lender a borrower uses (JVM or not).

Foreclosures Shoot Dangerously High!

Actually, they don’t.

Foreclosures are NOT dangerously high, but I am just repeating the clickbait I was seeing this morning.

I wanted to address this quickly because it is nonsense like this that keeps borrowers on the sidelines, fearing that home prices may drop.

Foreclosures were up 14% in 2025 to 367,000, up from 322,000 in 2024 – A NEAR RECORD LOW NUMBER!

For perspective, we had 2.9 million foreclosures in 2010.

What Is a Recertification of Value?

If a refinancing homebuyer bought in the last 12 months, lenders can just get a “recertification of value” from the appraiser that did the purchase appraisal – avoiding the cost of a new appraisal.

This is important because it is one more thing that makes refis that much easier. I should add that even “recerts” are unnecessary when we get a full appraisal waiver – which we get often nowadays.

Example of an Actual DSCR Rate: 6.5%

I blogged yesterday about our DSCR/Rental-Income-Only loans, raving about how low the rates are now. In response, several agents asked me for examples.

I saw a quote go out today with a rate of 6.5% with only 20% down (and no prepayment penalty) – at a cost of two points (this assumes the rent fully covers the housing payment).

If borrowers, however, put down 25% (instead of 20%) and take a small prepayment penalty, that rate could easily be 1/4% lower, or the fees could be much lower.