MANSION --- Jumbo Jungle: Loans that Dwarf the Definition of Jumbo
For home buyers, 2012 was the year of the jumbo, jumbo mortgage.</br></br>Private jumbo loans start after $417,000 in most parts of the country-- or exceed $625,500 in pricey metro areas like New York and San Francisco. But lenders say they've been doling out loans that far exceed these amounts.</br></br>"We see quite a bit of volume over $1 million . . . [which] did increase this year," says Brad Blackwell, portfolio business manager for Wells Fargo's home-mortgage unit.</br></br>Overall, lenders distributed $148 billion of private jumbos over the first nine months of the year, up 23.3% from the same period a year ago, according to data compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade publication. Originations for the year are on pace to be the highest since 2007.</br></br>The jumbo surge overlaps with a spike in luxury real-estate sales. For much of the year, sales of existing single-family homes priced at $1 million or more have been on the rise. In November, sales volume increased 52% from a year prior, according to the latest data by the National Association of Realtors.