Mary Taylor Sales Manager/Sr. Loan Officer Golf Savings Bank Phone: (503) 701-2269 Fax: 1-888-287-1675 metaylor@golfsavingsbank.com

Sure-Fire Technique to Create Safe, Memorable Passwords Passwords are crucial to accessing your personal accounts and information. But they're only really useful if they're easy for you to remember...and tough for others to break. The following steps can help you achieve both! 1. Think up a phrase. Instead of a common word or family member name, think up a unique phrase that only you know. For example, you may think up something off the wall such as "I Like Short Hair Too." 2. Make it an acronym. In our example, "I Like Short Hair Too" would become ILSHT. 3. Add Complexity. Substitute symbols and numbers to add complexity to your acronym. For example, "I Like Short Hair Too" can become "1 Like $hort Hair 2" which makes: 1L$H2. You can also use uppercase and lowercase letters to make it 1L$h2. 4. Make it unique! A password is only really unique if you use it for one account and one account only! So mix in additional letters and numbers that are unique to each account. For example, if you're logging into a "gmail account" you can use the "gm" and "@cct" (for acct) to make: 1L$h2gM@cct. Then, for a Netflix account, you may use: 1L$h2Nf@cct. Of course, these are just examples. You'll want to think up your own acronym along with different characters you can add to make each account unique. And then keep that secret to yourself, so no one will be able to guess your account passwords.

Mortgage Interest Rates for Fixed Rate Mortgages*

Rates as of  Friday January b8, 2010

Term Conforming APR         Conv 30 Yr 360  5.125 %  5.269 %         Conv 15 Yr 360  4.625 %      4.764%         Conv 5/1 Arm 360  3.875 %  4.008 %         FHA/VA 30 Yr 360  5.125 %  5.555 %         FHA 3/1 Arm 360  4.000 %  4.381 %

*Rates are subject to change due to market fluctuations and borrower's eligibility.

All loans subject to credit approval and property appraisal. Programs, rates, and terms subject to change without notice. For ARM loans, rate may increase after settlement. Prequalification is not a commitment to lend, a condition of loan approval, or an application for credit. Pre-approvals will result in a loan decision subject to conditions. Consult a tax advisor regarding the deductibility of interest.--

2010 Forecast:

From Dick Lepre, San Francisco 

2010 Year in Preview

- The mortgage industry has to deal with a new Good Faith Estimate and RESPA regulation as of January 1, 2010. This will drive lenders crazy for a few months but eventually be good for borrowers as it locks lenders into the closing costs provided.

- the mortgage industry is facing the potential of dire new rules limiting how loan officers are compensated. The motivation here is to somehow serve borrowers by making loan officers compensation independent of the terms of the loan. How this would affect no point or "no cost" loans is unclear. I was asked by folks at the Federal Reserve to voice my opinions on the suggested changes and did so in September.

- there is legislation in Congress to reorganize the regulation of the banking industry. This is a complex issue but I continue to be troubled by the fact that the same people in Congress who demanded more subprime and prevented more control of FHLMC & FNMA are the folks behind the legislation. This is the ongoing problem I have. In 1993 Congress mandated that the GSEs do subprime. In 1998 HUD demanded expanded subprime lending for the GSEs. When the GSEs could not generate enough bad loans so HUD insisted that they buy pools of subprime and Wall Street and the mortgage industry accommodated them. What resulted was disaster. I always contrast this to bad lending on Option ARMs and commercial real estate which are entirely the fault of the banking sector.

- Money supply and the Fed. This is a big one. The Fed has created an enormous amount of money to buy Treasuries, mortgage paper and other assets. The fact that we did not have a cataclysmic recession was largely the result of Fed interventions. The Fed must consider in 2010 starting to sell Treasuries and mortgages to reduce money supply to prevent inflation. The Fed must be given latitude here. We will have another $1 trillion deficit which will mean more Treasuries. I believe that the Fed has discretion here. No matter how I slice this, it is difficult to not see a runup in mortgage rates of between 0.5% and 1% at the end of the 1stQ 2010. That is when the Fed is supposed to stop buying mortgage debt. 

Freddie Mac:  Mortgage Rates Start the New Year Slightly Lower Than They Ended the Old Year

 

For Immediate Release  January 7, 2010   Contact: corprel@freddiemac.com   or (703) 903-3933

McLean, VA - Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.09 for the week ending January 7, 2010, down from last week when it averaged 5.14 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.01 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.50 percent down from last week when it averaged 4.54 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.62 percent.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.44 percent this week unchanged from last week when it averaged 4.44 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 5.49 percent.

"Mortgage rates eased slightly this week after rising consecutively through December," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "Current interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages are just about at their annual average for 2009, while ARM rates are considerably below their averages for last year.

"As the economy strengthens further and the Federal Reserve (Fed) decides to raise its overnight target rate, ARM rates will follow suit because they are typically tied to shorter-term interest rates. However, the federal funds futures market does not anticipate any Fed action until the second half of 2010." 

From "Think Big, Work Small" 

Dec non-farm jobs saw a decline of 85K as most economists were expecting an unchanged number; the range of forecasts was -80K to +100K. The unemployment rate was unchanged in Dec at 10.0%. Nov NFP was revised to +4K frm the original release of -11K, Oct NFP was revised from -111K to -127K. Dec average hourly earnings were up 0.2% which is the increase we see every month. No job creation but markets still believe the economy will continue to improve as businesses do better by cutting jobs and spending. Kind of ridiculous that markets are so willing to dismiss the fact that jobs don't matter. Where in the world does that idea permeate from? From The Street and from those making a living touting buying of stocks. Since the beginning of the recession a total 7.2 mil jobs have been lost; in the past year (2008) 4.2 mil jobs were lost and for the past six months 6.1 mil have lost jobs. 661K people have dropped out of the work force; no matter the spinmiesters making this pigs ear into a silk purse, the lack of jobs and the continuing decline in jobs is not encouraging. The 7.2 million drop in payrolls over the past two years has been the biggest as a percentage of all jobs since World War II was ending in 1944-45.

 

Gag me on the political spin being attributed to this employment report. I am increasingly disgusted listening to politicians making the case that since the economy lost 600K in Dec 2008 and now only 85K lost, that that is a positive; better than in the past but would be employers are not hiring---period. Ask those that have lost jobs and can't find work if that is a plus. Yes, we can't keep losing 600K a month or we will all be on food stamps, but to paint the Dec report as a move toward the view that the economy is rebounding is, as is said, one can make anything out of data look like they want it too----economists and analysts do it daily. Christina Romer, White House economic person----smiling all the way; saying the job losses disappointing but still on the road. The Obama Administration is losing the battle, pumping almost a trillion dollars to save banks, spending a lot of taxpayers money to revive jobs that so far has been wasted. Another stimulus plan? WTF! Interest rates will explode if Obama continues to rack up increasing budget deficits.