| |
week in review: Nicole's Week in Review - 12/07/09 11:15 AM
We had some good news and bad news last week, let's start with the good! The national unemployment rate came in better than expected at 10%. Only 11,000 jobs were lost in November, much lower than the 125,000 expected loss, AND the fewest number of jobs lost since December 2007! While this is great news, and sent stocks rallying, it was to the detriment of mortgage bonds which raised rates (that's the bad news, by the way). Overall, rates are about .25% worse than where they were around Thanksgiving time.
Other big news last week was HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan's … (0 comments)
|
week in review: Nicole's Week in Review - 11/23/09 05:07 PM
Time for another edition of my week in review! Rates are near this year's lows, and are having a tough time pushing any lower. As I've mentioned in previous posts, the Fed will be slowing down the purchase of mortgage-backed securities through 1st quarter 2010; so if you're on the fence about buying or refinancing, I'd recommend moving quickly if you're payment sensitive because RATES WILL BE INCREASING.
Existing Home Sales were announced today, and jumped 10% in October! As good as that sounds, keep in mind a lot of these sales were likely due to buyers meeting the original first-time … (2 comments)
|
week in review: 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)
|
week in review: Nicole's Week in Review - 11/02/09 10:32 AM
Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a great Halloween weekend -- I sure did playing with the cutest 2 year olds on the planet! Here's last week's recap, and a preview of what's to come this week.
Mortgage Rates
It was another volatile week for mortgage rates, so depending on when you locked your rate, you could see a difference of about .125%. Overall, the week ended only slightly better than where it began, but depending on your lender's margins, you may/may not have seen that improvement passed on in the form of a lower interest rate. This morning's … (2 comments)
|
week in review: Nicole's Week in Review - 10/26/09 01:28 PM
Mortgage rates suffered some volatility mid-week, but ended Friday about where they opened on last Monday. The same cannot be said about today, as rates opened about .125% higher than where they ended on Friday.
Last week showed the market is absorbing much of its housing inventory, which dropped to a 7.8 month supply, down from 10.1 months in April. This is in part due to builders' caution in beginning new developments -- Housing Starts and Building Permits came in below expectations last week. On the other hand, Existing Home Sales came in better than expected, with nearly 45% of … (1 comments)
|
week in review: Nicole's Week in Review - 10/19/09 11:22 AM
Last week was another very volatile week for mortgage rates, which ended the week about .125% worse than where they began. This increase, followed by an increase in rates week before last, is an indication that rates maybe on a more permanent rise.
Why did rates increase? Firstly, the stock market did remarkably well last week; as a general rule, when the stock market does well, mortgage rates rise as money flows out of mortgage bonds and into stocks. Also, the CPI came in higher than expected last week, which indicates inflation (the archenemy of mortgage rates) may be on … (0 comments)
|
week in review: Nicole's Week in Review. Plus, Where Rates are Headed! - 10/12/09 03:59 PM
The bond market is closed today for Columbus Day, but ended last week leaving a sour taste in our mouth. Mortgage rates averaged well the entire week, then went up approximately .25% on Friday alone.
Could this mean mortgage rates are beginning to increase after enjoying months of historic lows? Perhaps, however the general sentiment is rates will continue their small fluctuations in the short-term, followed by a precipitous increase approximately 1-2 years from now. I know what you're thinking, "Nicole, why are you so smart?" Well, I largely attribute that to my early childhood Montessori education...what? That wasn't what … (1 comments)
|
week in review: 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)
|
week in review: 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)
|
week in review: 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)
|
week in review: 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)
|
week in review: 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)
|
week in review: 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)
|
week in review: Nicole's Week in Review - 03/16/09 10:25 PM
Last week's big news was the rally stocks enjoyed -- the largest in 2009. Wall Street certainly liked hearing Citigroup state it wouldn't need anymore capital injections, and Bernanke stating our recession could be over by end-of-year if the banking system can be stabilized. He also made it abundantly clear that major institutions would not be allowed to fail.
The consequences of our recessionary spending loomed its ugly head again as China expressed its concern over the safety of the U.S. assets it holds. Bernanke has attempted to quell these inflationary fears by stating the U.S. has an "exit strategy" … (1 comments)
|
week in review: 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)
|
week in review: Nicole's Week in Review - 02/23/09 09:55 PM
The $787 Billion stimulus plan called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR 1) conquered headlines last week when it was signed into law on Tuesday, February 17th. Portions of the bill of particular interest to the real estate community are: The $8,000 First-time Homebuyer Tax Credit and $11 Billion Appropriated to USDA Rural Development Loans (click the links for details on those portions of the bill).
A day before our gargantuan stimulus passed, President Obama also announced details of his Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan which he hopes will stabilize housing by reducing foreclosures and keeping mortgage rates low. … (0 comments)
|
week in review: Nicole's Weekly Wrap-Up! - 02/16/09 10:49 AM
The stimulus bill took over headlines last week as the Senate and Housed fleshed out their versions into one cohesive bill. Here's a wrap-up of news that affected the housing market, and what to expect this week.
Mortgage Rates
Last week was another volatile week for mortgage rates. They improved earlier in the week, but lost their ground later in the week and ended slightly worse than where they began. Last week's Bankrate.com 30 yr fixed rate average ended at 5.44% (last week's was 5.34%). Usually, bad news for stocks equals good news for mortgage bonds (i.e., interest rates) as … (0 comments)
|
week in review: Nicole's Weekly Wrap-Up! - 02/09/09 09:56 PM
Employment
The labor department reported 598,000 jobs were lost in January. This is worse than the expected 540,000 job loss projection and puts current unemployment at 7.6%. Overall, 3.6 million jobs have been lost since December 2007, with half of them lost in the last 3 months. Ouch.
Personal Consumption
The PCE (Personal Consumption Index) reported its smallest gain in 5 years. This puts inflationary concerns in the backseat (for now) as the concern of deflation continues to loom. Dropping prices sounds pretty great, except they exasperate our slower economy as people delay spending in hopes of buying when prices … (0 comments)
|
|
|
|
|
|
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
Email Me
 Links
Archives
|
;)
;)
