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Raising the Conforming Mortgage Loan Amount in New York City

Have you heard that they are raising the conforming mortgage limit from $415,000 (depending upon the area you live in)?  In New York the new conforming limit will be: $729,750!  I can't tell you how excited I was to heard that.  I recently bought an apartment in Manhattan and had to get a Jumbo Mortgage since prices here are so inflated (i.e. good luck finding a place less than $500K).  

Looking at the rates on Wells Fargo's Mortgage Rate Site there is a full percentage point difference between the conforming and jumbo loans.  Money in the bank, baby!

Here's where reality sets in and the saying "no such things as a free lunch" comes into play.  It seems that there is an extra "fee" being charge for the extra risk of these larger loans.  The extra fee essentially wipes out the savings of having a conforming loan.

Guess I won't be refinancing anytime soon.

Here is an article explaining more. 

Also, here is what my mortgage broker said when I asked him (this is from a few weeks ago, so the rates aren't up-to-date): 

The new "High Balance Conforming Program" is up and running on 30 Year Fixed mortgages, but not as attractive as we had hoped. The 10/1 Arm is "out" as no investor is really buying Arm's at the moment (they are shelled shocked) so pricing is really quite bad. The 30 Year Fixed is by far the most attractively priced from a historical perspective.
 
Regular Jumbo 30 Year Today is about 6.875% at Zero points
New High Balance Conforming 30 Year is about 6.625% at Zero points.