March (Website) Madness

It's March and that means most people are thinking of the Final Four. Me? I am thinking of the Fantastic Four (and I don't mean the comic book). I am talking about four websites that I think are worth a visit as you are trying to understand this ever-changing mortgage market, evolving consumer tastes and interests and discovering what types of products are performing. So let's take a look. 

www.city-data.com

This site provides every bit of information you could ever need for any city. Just go to city-data.com and scroll to the bottom of the page. Type in a city name and be prepared to get an onslaught of information including recent home sales, median household age and income, average precipitation and temperature per month, list of schools, crime reports, racial demographics, local employers, mortgage loan data and more. This site is a must see for anyone creating a targeted marketing plan. 

http://www2.fdic.gov/recon/index.asp

This site offers a plethora of information from real-estate activity to employment, and income information to industry analysis. When you get to the site, click on the state that interests you. Then, click any of the links to dive deeper into your area.  

I spend a lot of time tracking mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures. This information is found under the "Real Estate Activity" heading. This is a great source to see how your state is performing in regards to mortgage delinquencies and to compare which mortgage products are and aren't performing.

https://entp.hud.gov/sfnw/public/

If you went to the previous site I mentioned (fdic.gov) and tracked mortgage delinquencies, you would have noticed that FHA loans are not performing as well as conventional subprime loans. Want to know how your company is performing on FHA loans? Want to know about the performance of your competition? Then this is the site for you. 

Under the "Early Warnings" tab, click "All Lenders/Areas" to see a list of all lenders that do FHA loans and how well they are performing. If you are interested in a specific lender, click the "Single Lender" link under the early warnings tab and type in the lender name. 

www.mybestsegments.com

If you want to know what demographic of people live in specific areas of the country, this site is your nirvana. From the homepage, click on the "Segment Look-Up" tab to see the 67 consumer profiles defined. Enter a zip code under the "Zip Code Look-Up" tool to explore the five most common types of consumers who live in that zip code. Once you enter that consumer profile, you can find out information such as average income, who owns or rents, likelihood of marriage and or children, educational attainment and what magazines and restaurants they prefer.

Bonus Site!

www.smartermi.com

Click "MI Rates & Guidelines" to view the latest Genworth rate cards and guidelines. Check out the "MI Rate Finder" to calculate a unique rate based on your input. (You can print the rate information and put in your file, so that your processor will now where you came up with your MI payment.)  Also check out the "Training & Education" link to see a schedule of all of Genworth's nationally acclaimed webinars, which are all offered free of charge. Hope to see you there.