Getting a jumbo mortgage is becoming a little easier for home buyers in the Coeur d'Alene area.

Jumbos in the area are mortgages that exceed $417,000, the limit set to receive government backing or for lenders to sell the loans to mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Since the mortgage crisis, banks haven't been eager to make large loans without federal protection, so the market for such mortgages suffered, crimping sales of expensive homes.

But more lenders have been stepping up their offerings of jumbo loans, even though most of the large mortgages will stay in the lender's portfolio.

Bigger banks have also gradually increased jumbo offerings. On Monday, Citigroup Inc. will drop rates to around 5.6% on 30-year fixed-rate jumbo mortgages with down payments of at least 25%. "There are a lot of really good buyers who are underserved today," said Sanjiv Das, chief executive of Citi's mortgage unit. He says the bank hopes lower rates will help "energize" those housing markets.

At J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., jumbo activity increased in every quarter last year, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. A lending official says the bank is reducing minimum down payments to as low as 20% in markets where prices appear to have bottomed.

Meanwhile, rates on jumbo loans have also fallen to their lowest levels in years. Last week, the average 30-year fixed-rate jumbo loan carried a 5.76% rate, just above the all-time low of 5.55% in June 2003.

Indeed, underwriting standards are still very tight, with most lenders requiring minimum credit scores of 740 and down payments of at least 20% for loans up to $1 million and 30% for loans up to $2 million.

And until those standards relax, analysts say that a modest improvement in mortgage lending might not have a big effect on sales on a market that depended heavily on easy lending during the bubble. However, if you are in the market for a luxury Coeur d'Alene home that requires a jumbo mortgage, now is proving to be a great opportunity to secure the home of your dreams!