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austin real estate: Nicole's Week in Review - 08/31/09 11:08 AM
Last week was a very volatile week, but despite the increase in supply of treasuries mortgage rates ended slightly better than where they began. Mortgage bonds and home loan rates were pushed against a high level of technical resistance which in layman's terms means rates ended the week looking pretty good, and any additional improvement will be tougher to realize (for purely technical reasons) unless we get some pretty big market news.
There was a list of major economic reports that came out last week. Here is a recap of what was released:
1. Core Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) rose … (2 comments)
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austin real estate: Nicole's Week in Review - 08/17/09 03:15 PM
It was a pretty volatile week for mortgage rates, but overall they ended about .25% better than where they began. This was mainly due to a friendly read on inflation via the Consumer Price Index report (CPI). This figure was unchanged for July, but the year-over-year CPI fell 2.1% for July, the largest 12-month decline since 1950. This continues to bode well for mortgage rates, but may not always be the case as CPI figures will likely rise as our economy pulls itself out of this recession.
Some more good news last week was Freddie Mac's announcement of a $768 … (1 comments)
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austin real estate: How MDIA and HVCC will Impact Your Closing Date - 08/07/09 10:22 AM
If you're in Real Estate and have a pulse, you've experienced, or at least heard of, the frustrations caused by the HVCC process. Well, just as you started getting used to dealing with HVCC's inefficiencies, along comes MDIA (Mortgage Disclosure Improvement Act, also referred to as HERA), HVCC's slower, meaner sister.
Ok, so before you start drowning in an alphabet soup of government legislation, let's quickly breakdown the legislations' rules, and their impact on the real estate market.
HVCC, Home Valuation Code of Conduct (effective May 1, 2009):
Promotes the accuracy of appraisals by shielding appraisers from undue influence … (4 comments)
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austin real estate: Nicole's Week in Review - 07/13/09 05:16 PM
Mortgage Rates
Last week started off looking pretty uneventful with a slim economic calendar, but got busier mid-week when some pretty big market moving news was announced. This news caused an improvement in rates early in the week, and a worsening later in the week.
So what caused all the volatility last week? Well, the week started off with some pretty sluggish reports in the Stock market, which improved the Bond market and mortgage rates. Adding to the mortgage rate improvement was Wednesday’s successful Treasury note auction. However, Thursday’s Treasury note auction did not go as well, causing downward pressure … (0 comments)
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austin real estate: Nicole's Week in Review - 06/29/09 11:02 AM
Last week was a relatively calmer week in terms of volatility in mortgage rates. This came as a surprise as we expected to see some pretty big swings on Thursday following the Fed's latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Minutes released from the FOMC meeting indicate the Fed decided on no change to the Fed Funds rate, or to the Bond purchase program (which helps keep mortgage rates low). One change from the prior meeting's statement was the Fed no longer sees deflation as a risk, which could signal inflation down the road. Remember, inflation is the arch-enemy of … (1 comments)
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austin real estate: Nicole's Week in Review - 06/15/09 01:17 PM
Volatility continues to be the name of the game when it comes to mortgage rates as they continue their precipitous climb that began roughly three weeks ago.
Mortgage Rates
Home loan rates ended last week about .25% worse than where they began. According to Bankrate.com, average 30-yr fixed conventional mortgages averaged about 5.67% nationwide, up .22% from last week.
Contributing to last week's volatility was the increase in supply of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) on the secondary market -- a large supply of MBS drives their prices down, causing mortgage rates to increase. Some of this supply is the large … (0 comments)
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austin real estate: Nicole's Week in Review - 06/08/09 08:20 AM
If you haven't noticed, I took a long hiatus from blogging -- BAD BLOGGER! Ya, I know what you're thinking, "Just another blogger that gets going then fizzles out -- chalk this one up to just another statistic." Well, sort of, these last two months mortgage rates have consistently averaged in the mid to high 4.0's%, which has brought an onslaught of business that left me gasping for air at the end of the day. Hey, I'm not complaining, it was a nice run; a good portion of the business was rate driven refinances which will likely slowdown as mortgage … (0 comments)
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austin real estate: Nicole's Week in Review - 03/30/09 02:12 PM
Last week provided some good news on the economic front, relative to what we've seen lately. The U.S. Personal Savings Rate came in at 4.2% -- the highest we've seen in decades! This is great news, especially considering we had a negative savings rate not too long ago (see chart).
It also looks like the Treasury is FINALLY using TARP funds to buy toxic assets -- well, that's a novel idea (eh-hmm). Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geitner, announced last week the Treasury would team-up with private investors to buy toxic assets off banks' books. The Treasury will provide private investors … (2 comments)
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austin real estate: Local Austin Statistics: Current Housing & Employment, and What's to Come - 01/23/09 10:16 AM
Curious where Austin ended in 2008, and where we're headed? Well, keep these statistics in your back-pocket for the frequent economic conversations we are all experiencing.
Housing
December 2008 - Single Family Homes
1,299 was the number of homes sold, a 21 percent decrease as compared to December 2007 $182,000 was the median price, a 4 percent decrease from December 2008 $320,542,539 was the total dollar volume of properties sold, a 22 percent decrease from December 2007 2008 Year-End Totals
$5,004,647,938 was the total dollar volume of single-family properties sold, a 21 percent decrease from 2007 $189,500 was the median price, a 2 … (2 comments)
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Nicole Lahti, Austin Texas Mortgage
Austin,
TX
More about me…
United Lending
Address: 8303 N. Mopac Bldg. A-201, Austin, TX, 78759
Office Phone: (512) 592-5468
Cell Phone: (512) 507-8312
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