NOT IN MY HOUSE!

“Not in My House!”

I have not seen any kind of drop in refinance activity, if anything just the opposite. With HARP 2 now in the picture, the refinance activity is very strong. How is it possible with all the homes underwater, that are held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that those folks would not want to refinance? I  took 3 applications for this product this week, in all three cases, the rates were between 6.5 and 6.875%. Each of the homeowners are saving at least 2% interest. The average savings $320 per month, that's like getting a $4,000 a year raise.

I want to share a commercial, if you know anyone that has an existing mortgage, that is higher than the value of the property, in any of the states I do business, CT, MA, RI, VT, NH, ME, NY or FL, please give them my contact information.

Refinance Activity Wanes as Applications Fall 7.4%: MBA

Renewed hope for Europe and the U.S. economy helped interest rates reach their highest peak since December and drove down mortgage applications by 7.4 percent last week.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) found in a weekly survey that application volume declined by 7.1 percent on a seasonally unadjusted basis from the week earlier.

The refinance share of mortgage activity fell to 73.4 percent of total volume, the lowest figure since July last year. The Refinance Index saw declines by 9.3 percent and 4.31 percent for the

four-week moving average, respectively.

“With the rate increase this week, refinances are obviously slowing, and the refinance share at 73% is down to its lowest level since last July,” Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s SVP of research and education, said in a statement.

He added that “HARP will be a bigger percentage of refinances but will be more concentrated in certain states.”

The seasonally adjusted Market Index yielded a 2.79-percent decline for the four-week moving average and 3.25 percent for the Purchase Index.

The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity meanwhile fell to 5.6 percent from 5.8 percent of application volume from last week.

The MBA said that the Purchase Index fielded 1-percent declines from the week before, while it slid 0.6 percent on a seasonally unadjusted basis.

Experts say investors continue a slow return to sovereign bonds in Europe as the second bailout slowly adjusts in Greece , contracting Treasury yields and releasing downward pressure on interest rates in the United States .