The other day Existing Home Sales were up over 7%. That is great news. But as I mentioned earlier in the week, the "recovery" is not impacting every segment in the same way, and wouldn't you agree, most of the housing price boom has been in the lower-priced home market. For example, sales of houses priced at less than $100,000 were up almost 39%. But sales of homes with a price tag of over $249,999 were actually down, and for anything more than $1 million sales estimates were down 26-29%.

My father used to say, "It's OK to kiss a nun, but don't get into the habit." Speaking of habits, the bond market has become accustomed to the Fed buying mortgages. What if they stopped? Federal Reserve President Lacker suggested the Fed might not need to spend the full amount it pledged ($1.25 trillion, for folks keeping score at home) to buy mortgages. So when someone like that suggests ceasing the program, it probably means a) the economy is seeing enough of a rebound that rates may move higher, or b) the demand for mortgages (artificial, yes, but demand nonetheless) will be lower, pushing prices lower and rates higher. So prices indeed did move down after his comments.

surfdana@sbcglobal.net

775 331-3001

Capitalism is a wild and wacky game. And it's not for those with weak guts, which brings me to the case of IndyMac whose long awaited sale was announced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Friday afternoon. The new "owners" of IndyMac are essentially a bunch of hedge funds that are well known for some of their contrarian bets in financial services. First and foremost among those private hedge funds is Paulson & Co., led by hedge fund guru John Paulson, who made a killing (a $15 billion killing) by shorting the ABX Index back in 2007 and early 2008. The ABX gauges the value of subprime bonds and we all know what happened there, don't we? For some reason the FDIC didn't mention Mr. Paulson's $15 billion winning bet against the B&C market in its press release. The FDIC's original investment banker on the sale of IndyMac was Lehman Brothers, which went bust a few months after getting the assignment. The advisor to the consortium? That would be Merrill Lynch & Co., which helped cause the subprime crisis by financing dozens of subprime lenders, buying their loans and packaging them into securities (CDOs) for sale to institutional investors in the U.S. and overseas. (Lehman did that too.) Like I said, capitalism is a wild and wacky game. But who knows any more, really? If John Paulson is putting his reputation (and a little bit of his money) on the line, maybe this actually signals a "bottom" in the mortgage and credit crisis. For the full story on the sale of IndyMac visit: http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/...

http://www.milestonemtg.com/dsorenson

but a flight to quality in US Treasuries. Unfortunately mortgage rates didn't tag along for the ride, and buyers backed off their prices during the day. On today's economic agenda, October's composite home price index is expected to decline -17.9%, a new record low, due to the inventory of homes and weak economic conditions.

http://www.milestonemtg.com/dsorenson

I saw the rates as low as 4.5% @ .5 points cost last week for 1 hour. If you don't position yourself with a fully approved package, you will get passed by and end up locking a higher rate. Buy the time borrowers decide to apply for lower rates the market bumps up to 5% or higher. The smart money is completing loan packages. Complete my application and lets get approved. We can wait till the market is perfect before we lock.

We finance 110% of the purchase price on foreclosures.  This loan includes: The down payment, Appraiser-required repairs costs up to $5,000 without an inspector, the balance of 110% covers ALL closing costs and pre-paid expenses. You need to bring in $100 to escrow.

Did I read that right? Yes we finance 110% of the lesser of the appraised value or purchase price.

Call Dana Sorenson 775 331 3001   http://www.milestonemtg.com/dsorenson