Jumbo Loans have always played an interesting role in Marin County Real Estate.  The high end of the market depends on them.  A year ago, even the most creditworthy borrowers struggled to secure home loans of more that $729,750 - the cutoff for conventional conforming loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.   But, since this spring, the interest rate spread between conforming and jumbo loans has narrowed and the number of lenders offering the loans has jumped.
    As of late July, lenders were offering jumbo loans at a typical rate of 5.5 percent, down from 7 percent a year earlier and not too different from what's available for conforming loan, according to data available on Bankrate.com.  NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a late July press conference that sales of existing homes priced at $750,000 and aboved jumped 30 percent from mid 2009. "Credit was extremely tight a year ago, but now it's beginning to loosen up" he said.
    Among the big players in the market, Citigroup said in a July 10th Wall Street Journal article that it has seen a 30 percent rise in Jumbo business. And, Bank of America has said that it will be making a big push into the Jumbo arena.   

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