| |
refinance: Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update: No Change - 02/09/08 11:03 AM
Despite the bumpy ride, rates didn’t change much this week. According to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, the 30 year conforming fixed rate ended the week at 5.65% with half a point. This of course is the owner occupied rate with the highest credit scores. Investors, or those with lower scores pay more.
The big news of course was the Senate passing the economic stimulus package containing the increased conforming loan limits, which now moves on to the President’s desk for signature next week. I contacted a number of banks to ask how quickly they would act on the new law, but … (1 comments)
|
refinance: Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride - 02/02/08 01:00 PM
After what can only be described as a two-week roller coaster ride, we are back at the platform we left two Mondays ago. Freddie Mac reports a weekly average 30 year fixed rate of 5.65% at .5 pts and a 15-year rate of 5.16% at .5 pt.
The chart above shows the price movement of the Fannie Mae MBS 5.5% coupon over the past 10 days. Remember that bond prices move inversely to rates. Thus the spike on the 22nd shows the steep price increase (drop in rates), followed by the immediate and violent drop in price (rise in rates).
(read the … (0 comments)
|
refinance: FHA Reform Makes it Through the Senate - 12/15/07 01:44 PM
The Senate’s FHA Modernization Bill, S 2338 flew through with a 93 to 1 vote yesterday. The House previously passed its own slightly different FHA reform bill in September. The measure will now go to a committee to work out compromises between the two competing version before the final draft is forwarded to the Oval Office for signature.
Two of the key issues are:
Raises the maximum FHA loan amount to $417,000, putting it in parity with conventional loan limits. Lowers the required down payment to 1.5% from 3% (the House version eliminates the down payment requirement altogether)(read the rest) … (1 comments)
|
refinance: Why It Pays to Check Out Lender-Paid Mortgage Insurance - 10/05/07 09:30 AM
Mortgage insurance, or PMI, has had an unfair rap ever since the media grabbed the topic 10 years ago and beat the life out of it. Every client thereafter spit out the same warning when we met.
I don’t want PMI!
Ok, I get it. So, most of us started doing the 1st/2nd combo loans that eventually became so popular. Structure an 80% 1st , put a 2nd behind it for the rest….and presto, no MI! And we’d still be doing them now except that those high CLTV 2nds are mostly gone.
There are times however when PMI, or MI as we … (3 comments)
|
refinance: FHASecure: The Solution to Foreclosure? - 08/31/07 05:33 PM
President Bush today announced FHASecure, a new FHA refinance program designed to help trouble homeowners keep their homes. The new program should provide an option for at least some of those people headed into foreclosure due to interest rate resets and skyrocketing mortgage payments.
Who will benefit? Hard to say just yet, but here are five criteria listed on the HUD cite:
To qualify for FHASecure, eligible homeowners must meet the following five criteria:
A history of on-time mortgage payments before the borrower’s teaser rates expired and loans resetInterest rates must have or will reset between June 2005 and December 2009;Three … (2 comments)
|
refinance: Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update - 08/29/07 11:27 PM
So what are mortgage rates doing?
That’s an interesting question. The conforming 30 year fixed rate has actually been falling. That is the bright star in a dark sky. But, it helps pull FHA, VA, CalHFA and any agency 100% programs down with it.
Freddie Mac last week reported the average 30 year fixed rates in the West at around 6.5% at half a point. And although things are bouncing around a bit, conforming rates continue their gradual decline. That makes it a great time for borrowers who can cobble together a down payment and document income.
Jumbo rates–and pretty … (0 comments)
|
refinance: More Lenders Falter - 08/22/07 05:33 PM
Lehman Brothers announced today the closure of its sub-prime subsidiary BNC Mortgage. Lehman Brothers will continue to originate prime mortgages through its Aurora Loan Services platform but is discontinuing all sub-prime originations.
More sad news from my rep at Accredited Mortgage yesterday afternoon:
I’m sure you’ve all heard the news that we’ve ceased accepting new loan applications. As you can surely guess, this means I am no longer employed. I wanted to thank all of you for your business and wish you the best of luck in the future. My email account will be shut off shortly. If you’d like to stay in … (2 comments)
|
refinance: Words of Wisdom from a Mortgage Veteran - 08/20/07 02:39 PM
These words of wisdom came in the form of a Monday morning email from fellow loan officer and mortgage broker Dave Ryland. Dave was a seasoned professional when I got into the business 18 years ago. Through good and bad markets, Dave has lived and demonstrated the kind of integrity & professionalism that defines us at our best. Through the current mortgage industry shake up, positive changes are evolving. Here are a couple of Dave’s thoughts:
I have realized why the contraction in our industry has me encouraged rather than worried. For many years, I took pride in the fact that it took effort and … (3 comments)
|
refinance: American Home Mortgage Falls as Credit Markets Tighten - 08/02/07 06:07 PM
Although not quite the canary in this coal mine, yesterday’s announcement of insolvency by American Home Mortgage Corp., one of the country’s largest mortgage banks, sent a chill through the financial markers. The announcement was significant because AHM was not a sub-prime lender and because it indicates that the mortgage industry’s problems have spread into the prime lending and corporate capital markets.
With risk spreads widening and credit tightening at all levels, the LBOs that have sustained the stock market’s recent rise are in jeopardy. Between AHM’s announcement and Countrywide’s earnings report last week, the stock and bond markets were frantic. … (3 comments)
|
refinance: Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update: Schizophrenia - 07/14/07 09:39 AM
The 30 year conforming fixed rate mortgage ended the week at an average 6.73 with .6 points in the Western U.S. according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey. BENEATH THE WAVES
Peering beneath a placid surface, the water is pretty churned up. One week, retail sales are up and consumer sentiment is down, the next week sentiment is up and sales are down. Are people feeling bad and buying stuff anyway, or are they feeling good but not buying?
Unsold inventories are up. Are businesses optimistic about future consumer spending or did they overestimate sales? And what about the extra $53 billion that … (0 comments)
|
refinance: Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update: What the hell happened? - 06/19/07 07:21 PM
I came back from two weeks vacation last Tuesday to find rates half a point higher than when I left. You just can’t take your eye off things for a minute anymore. But seriously, 6.625% at one point. That’s a serious increase for a two week period.
So What Happened?(read the answer)
… (0 comments)
|
refinance: Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update - 02/24/07 07:13 PM
The 30 year fixed rate closed the week unchanged at 6%.
Behind the Numbers In a quiet week, largely devoid of significant economic reports, the main excitement was Wednesday’s CPI report which came in higher than expected at 0.2%.
The core CPI rate also rose more than expected at 0.3%, and the January year over year rose to 2.7%. This last little piece of data suggests a trend toward higher inflation that bothered both the stock and bond markets and temporarily
read the rest of this post
… (0 comments)
|
refinance: 6 Reasons Your Next Loan May Take Longer Than It Should - 02/21/07 02:34 AM
The way the real estate market has slowed, you would think lenders would be just waiting to pounce on and approve next loan that comes through. You’d think our “turn times” would be faster for underwriting, drawing loan docs, funding and recording. You’d think loans should virtually fly through the approval process. You’d think all that, and yet you’d be wrong.
So just exactly why are loans taking longer than they should right now? Here are 6 reasons that come to mind:
Reason #1: Layoffs Like any business, when things slow down the mortgage industry lays people off. This slowdown started … (17 comments)
|
refinance: Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update - 01/26/07 08:20 PM
The benchmark 30 year fixed rate mortgage climbed higher again this week, ending at 6.125% with 1 point.
Behind the Numbers
The week was a bag of mostly positive economic news, further eroding hopes of a Fed rate cut anytime soon. After briefly crossing 4.9% for the first time since August, the 10–year Note yield closed at 4.879%, up from last week’s close of 4.773%. (bad for rates)
The week’s news led off with an increase in the index of leading economic indicators, a sign that the economy may be picking up steam (again, bad for rates).
Thursday, existing homes sales dropped slightly, but … (0 comments)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marc Brinitzer
Sacramento,
CA
More about me…
Big Valley Mortgage
Office Phone: (916) 791-3760 x 340
Cell Phone: (916) 761-3760
Email Me
 Links
Archives
|
;)
;)
