Fannie will be costing buyers more!

Borrowing to buy a home will get more expensive soon, especially if you have a high credit score because you'll be hit with a new fee.

Fannie Mae, which sets the standards for mortgages it buys from lenders, is increasing the adverse market delivery charge on home loans purchased on or after April 1, and for the first time will require borrowers with a credit score of 740 or higher to pay this fee.

Some lenders will likely start adding the increased (and new) charge to mortgages in the coming weeks, said Cameron Findlay, chief economist for LendingTree.com, an online mortgage-shopping service. By February, most lenders will have followed suit.
Fannie Mae created the adverse market delivery charge in 2008, when the housing market started to deteriorate, Findlay said. The charge penalized those with low credit scores and rewarded borrowers with higher credit scores by enabling them to get the best mortgage rates.

In 2009, Fannie Mae increased the fee for most but still exempted those with scores of 740 and higher. Those with scores of 720 to 739 had to pay a 0.25 percent fee only on mortgages that were 75.01 to 80 percent of a home's value.

The latest fee increase, though, will force those with scores of 720 to 739 to pay a 0.5 percent charge on a loan that is 75.01 percent or more of a home's value, which, for example, adds $800 on a $160,000 loan. And those with scores of 740 or higher will pay an extra 0.25 percent.

The charge rises as the credit score falls, to as high as 3.25 percent for borrowers with scores below 620.

Expect to see a greater disparity in mortgage rates as lenders start applying the higher charge, making it even more important to shop around for the best rate.