Low interest rates are driving high-end home buyers to supersized mortgages at a pace unseen since the housing boom. So-called jumbo loans, generally those bigger than $417,000, are a better bargain now than they have been in years. The average rate on a 30-year jumbo mortgage is 5.15%, down from 6.41% two years ago, according to mortgage data firm HSH Associates. Because the federal government will start easing its support of jumbo loans this fall, such deals may have a limited shelf life.
Wall Street Journal July 17, 2011
