My experience with this is that anything up to 417K is conforming…between 417 and 523 (for Boston) is conforming jumbo and over 523K is jumbo. The rates for conforming jumbos often aren’t as low as 417K but much better than jumbos.

Also, on websites it’s rare to find the conforiming jumbo rates quoted. You have to contact the lender directly and some may sway you towards a regular jumbo anyway but some will give you good rates for conforming jumbos.

I would like to see most housing subsidies phased out also. However it will be a cold day in hell when this happens. I was in DC last week and noticed that the headquarters of the National Association of Realtors is about 1/2 a mile away from Capital Hill.

Richard

I agree with you that they have been subsidizing it for a long time with the tax breaks. I just think it is wrong. I just want the powers that be to let the prices fall to a natural level. I think that level would be what people could afford using the 20% down and 28% of monthly income. I know I’m probably not going to change anything with my opinion but I still like to voice it.

blogs.wsj.com/developments/2009/11/17/in-housing-bust-government-increasingly-favors-homeowners-over-renters/

In Housing Bust, Government Increasingly Favors Homeowners Over Renters

During the housing boom, critics increasingly complained that the government devoted too many resources to homeownership and too few to more affordable options, such as renting. Now, during the bust, the government’s commitment to ownership has grown even larger, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office.

This year, the government devoted four times the amount of budgetary resources to homeownership as it devoted to rental housing, or around $230 billion in spending and tax breaks for homeowners compared to around $60 billion for renting, the CBO reported. Around two-thirds of Americans are homeowners, according to the Census Bureau, though the rate fell to around 67.5% earlier this year, from a peak of 69.2% in 2004.

The report notes that, until recently, most government support for homeowners came in the form of tax breaks that don’t require government spending but result in the government collecting less in taxes than what might be owed.

But recent efforts to help stabilize a fragile housing market means that government spending now accounts for around half of federal support for housing, including a $75 billion tab for the government’s loan modification programs and taxpayer money to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the black.

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