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unemployment: Nicole's Week in Review - 11/09/09 11:44 AM
Rates opened up flat last Monday from the previous week. There was some upward pressure during the week with relief on Friday when the unemployment rate came in higher than expected.
190,000 jobs were lost in October, much higher than the $175,000 expected loss, putting our unemployment rate at 10.2%. Remember, this does not include people who have given-up looking for jobs, or those who are "underemployed" by taking part-time jobs, or positions in which they are over-qualified. If these people were taken into account, it's estimated that the real unemployment rate would be closer to 17.5% -- wowza!
On … (0 comments)
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unemployment: Nicole's Week in Review - 09/28/09 09:58 AM
Mortgage Rates
Rates ended nearly unchanged for the week, but the biggest news last week was the Fed signaled higher mortgage rates are in the near future.
The low mortgage rates we've enjoyed were due in large part to the Fed's purchase of Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) on the secondary market -- a 1.2T purchase commitment spread evenly over the last year. Speculation that the Fed would continue to purchase MBS was squashed last week when the Fed gave a definitive "no", and instead said their current commitment would continue through first quarter 2010 through a "weaning" off of the program.
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unemployment: 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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unemployment: 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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unemployment: 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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unemployment: 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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unemployment: 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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unemployment: Nicole's Week in Review - 03/09/09 10:28 AM
The Obama Administration announced its Making Home Affordable plan last week which it hopes will help keep people in their homes, and sustain property values by reducing foreclosures. The plan has three initiatives -- the refinance initiative, loan modification initiative and low mortgage rate initiative. The first two initiatives were expanded on in last week's announcement -- I'm currently working acertaining all their details and how it affects the real estate market, so check back shortly for a post about the plan. In the meantime, you can read a preview of the plan I wrote prior to last week's official … (0 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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