Jumbo loans thrive in US mortgage market

Washington

TODD Vitale, a personal trainer who opened his own gym last year, said he was having difficulty getting a mortgage of more than US$700,000 to buy a home in Greenwich, Connecticut, because his new business was untested.

Then he tried Wells Fargo & Co, the biggest US home lender, where he kept most of his savings in an account he opened more than a decade ago, he said. He worked with the bank's private mortgage unit, whose clients are entitled to loans of up to US$6 million and personalised service, and had the opportunity to explain that he had already run a similar business and could make the gym succeed. Wells Fargo approved his 30-year fixed-rate mortgage of more than US$700,000, he said.