REAL ESTATE

Jumbo Mortgage Costs May Drop: A pilot program operated by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., Pasadena-based Independent National Mortgage Corp. and Standard & Poor’s allows lenders to quickly evaluate so-called jumbo home loan applications and find out how much they can sell the loan to investors for in the secondary market. Interest rates on many jumbo loans--those exceeding $207,000--are often higher than on conventional loans because lenders have few options to sell the loans in the secondary mortgage market. It will be up to the lenders to pass along any savings to borrowers. So far, only a few mortgage lenders nationwide are participating in the pilot program, and Independent National Mortgage is the only firm that has pledged to buy the loans. The program is expected to remain in the test phase for several months before being expanded.