mortgage loan originator: Market Matters, February 24, 2018 Edition
- 02/24/18 12:58 PM
Existing Home Sales for January fell 3.2% month over month, and have now dropped 4.8% year over year. The market call was for a decline of 3.6%, so the result was just slightly better than expectations. Inventory, now sitting at a 19-year low, remains the real reason for the decline. While existing sales have been choppy, they are certainly on an uptrend, and that keeps sentiment on the positive side looking ahead. The MBA mortgage application volume for the week ending 2/16 showed purchase business fell 6%, with refis down 7%. The composite index was off 6.6%. With interest rates on the … (0 comments)
mortgage loan originator: Market Matters, February 10, 2018 Edition
- 02/10/18 12:52 PM
The government shut down Thursday night at midnight, but reopened just a few hours later as the bill passed the House with the President signing around 7:40am CST Friday morning. Looking at the details of the bill, “…the two-year deal that raises spending levels $300 billion above the caps implemented in both the 2011 Budget Control Act and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. Defense spending will now increase $165B ($80B in 2018, $85B in 2019) and an additional $131B will go to nondefense spending ($63B in 2018, and $68B in 2019).” It also contains spending authority through March 23rd when … (0 comments)
mortgage loan originator: Market Matters, February 3, 2018 Edition
- 02/03/18 10:02 AM
Personal Income and Spending were both up .4%. Wages and salaries also are showing solid gains of .5%. However, giving a hint of trouble ahead is that the savings rate dropped .1% to a 13-year low. We have also noticed an acceleration of credit in both credit cards and car loans over the past year, along with rising delinquencies. Not a healthy situation for consumers to follow. Case-Shiller’s Home Price Index rose .7% in November, matching the gains seen in October. Home prices are now up 6.2% year-on-year. Atlanta and Dallas, which have traditionally been affordable markets, are now posting double digit … (1 comments)
mortgage loan originator: Market Matters, January 27, 2018 Edition
- 01/27/18 11:41 AM
Undeterred by higher interest rates, homebuyers led the MBA’s weekly applications for the week ending 1/19 higher by 6.0%. Refis rose 1.0% to put the composite index at plus 4.5%. Good start to the new year. Speaking of home sales, Existing Home Sales fell 3.6% in December following a 5.6% gain in November. Inventories across the country dropped to 3.4 months, the main culprit behind slowing sales in December. Still, at 5.75 million units, the market remains very strong. FHFA Home Price Index rose .4% in November and plus 6.5% year-on-year. The West North Central posted the highest gains at .9% … (0 comments)
mortgage loan originator: Market Matters, December 9, 2017
- 12/09/17 09:50 AM
ISM Non-Manufacturing Index fell 2.7 points in November, yet remains well above 50 (expansion) at 57.4. Lingering effects from the hurricanes seem to have been the culprit behind the drop as all other sub-indexes remained in expansion mode. The Trade Balance (deficit) widened to -$48.7 billion. It is the highest trade shortfall in 9 months with the keys being imports up 1.8% (rising oil prices), while exports were flat. MBA reported this week that the mortgage origination composite index rose 4.7% with purchases up 2.0%, and refi’s up .9%. Excellent numbers for this time of the year. Productivity jumped 3% while Unit Labor Costs … (0 comments)
mortgage loan originator: Market Matters, November 25, 2017 Edition
- 11/25/17 08:11 AM
Mortgage applications for the previous week were mostly flat, up.1% on some stronger purchase activity (+5.3%) and weaker refi activity (-4.8%). Existing Home Sales rose 2% in October, a nice rebound from the hurricane affected .7% rise in September. Sales in Houston and Jacksonville recovered nicely, yet South Florida continues to show weak results. Existing Home Sales also showed gains in the Northeast, Midwest, and the West. Durable Goods Orders in October fell by 1.2%, while orders ex-transportation actually rose .4%. Capital goods orders nondefense ex-aircraft saw a drop of .5%. The headline is weaker than markets had expected, however it is dominated … (0 comments)
mortgage loan originator: Market Matters, November 4, 2017
- 11/04/17 07:13 AM
The MBA released mortgage origination volume for the week ending 10/27, showing the overall composite down 2.6% with purchases off 1% and refi’s down 5%. Despite the weekly declines, purchase business remained a solid 10% above the year-ago level. The FOMC concluded their two-day meeting on Wednesday, voting unanimously to leave their target overnight rate unchanged at 1.0-1.25%. The FOMC did change a large group of words in the October Statement, however, the overall message remains mostly the same. The majority of changes were related to the hurricanes and their effect on the recent economic data. The biggest change was in the … (3 comments)
mortgage loan originator: Credit Tip - Inquires Part 2
- 10/31/17 09:54 AM
Inquires Part 2: The difference between a "hard pull" and a "soft pull" As we discussed in our last tip, having your credit pulled can be quite detrimental to your FICO score. However, what also comes into play are "Hard" Inquiries and "Soft" Inquiries. Hard inquiries occur only when "you are applying for more debt." Soft Inquires, on the other hand, are all other inquiries. Can you guess where the largest quantity of soft inquiries comes from? Surprisingly, they come from your current creditors performing routine checkups. You may not know this because it’s in the minute writing you didn’t read … (0 comments)
Existing Home Sales for January fell 3.2% month over month, and have now dropped 4.8% year over year. The market call was for a decline of 3.6%, so the result was just slightly better than expectations. Inventory, now sitting at a 19-year low, remains the real reason for the decline. While existing sales have been choppy, they are certainly on an uptrend, and that keeps sentiment on the positive side looking ahead.
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