Treasury Auctions Weigh on Markets Yesterday’s $42 billion 5-yr auction did not go well. It goes back to the “What if we held an auction and nobody bid?” Indirect bids, which in the past indicated a level of interest from foreign entities but in the last year became a little convoluted, have been on a
ARMs Only 3% Of Total Agency Loans In 2009 An annual report on the ARM market published by Freddie Mac shows adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for just 3 percent of all conventional home purchase loans in 2009. That’s the smallest percentage for ARMs since at least 1982. Market & Economic News Update Yes, today we have
Sales of new (as opposed to existing) single family homes for November occurred at a seasonally adjusted rate of 355,000 according to joint estimates by the US Census Bureau and HUD. This is 11.3% below the October numbers, which were revised to 400,000, and is 9% below the November 2008 estimate of 390,000. Median new
According to the police, a Texas woman lived in an apartment with her dead boyfriend for a week. Know why he didn’t marry her? Cold feet. And speaking of cold, here we are at the World Series…baseball in November in the Northeast. Lots of folks in mortgage banking like numbers and statistics, so here is
As my grandfather used to say, “If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.”* Apparently the folks at Sunwest Bank, out of Tustin, CA, felt the same way. Clients received a letter saying, “I regret to inform you that as of October 2, 2009, Sunwest Bank will be
In news that is sure to “spook the herd”, the New York Times reports that “Google plans to begin offering loan quotes online as early as this month, a lawsuit filed in federal court this week claims. The suit was filed by LendingTree, which offers consumers mortgage quotes and conditional loan offers online, against Mortech,
Q: In these busy market times, how can you get the attention of your broker? A: Say, “Hey, waiter!” To tell us how the economy is doing, should we really look at the stock market? Probably not, as many experts believe that prices are more impacted by psychology than by fundamental items such as earnings
Congratulations to David Stevens. On Friday the U.S. Senate confirmed Dave to head the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Stevens will take over the agency in the middle of their huge surge in business, and many feel that with the non-HVCC appraisals and the fact that the FHA insures mortgages with a small down payment for
Yesterday I had a showering discussion with my 17-yr old son. Specifically, I asked him why, as it seemed to me, he hadn’t showered since around Easter. He explained that in Biology class they had learned that every animal has a certain set of resident flora and fauna on their bodies, and bathing was actually
Rates Significantly Higher Past 2 Weeks A college girlfriend once told me, “The more I think of you, the less I think of you.” At first I thought that was pretty clever, but then it dawned on me what she was saying… The same goes for rates. These rates, relative to where they were two
Anytime one combines the words “politician”, “mortgage fraud”, and “dominatrix” in a news story, it makes for interesting press. Are Mortgage Brokers Going Extinct? Brokers are wondering if they will become extinct. Frankly, I doubt it. Remember that mortgage investors are “for profit” institutions. If a particular investor, such as Bank of America or Wells
Last Friday was the first day of spring. Congratulations, you made it through winter – now if only your savings had… Conforming To $729k? What is the word on when the conventional $729,250 will be rolled out? Hah! Call me “out of the loop”, but I have none. There are reports that big banks’ retail
New home purchases for December came in at an annual pace of 331,000, the lowest level on record. Only 23,000 Americans bought new homes in December. Supply of new homes is at 12.9 months. This news follows another report earlier this week on Existing Home Sales that showed an unexpected rise of 6.5% for December,
New San Francisco condo projects are changing strategy from purely selling properties to also offering rentals. More from SF Chronicle: — The company behind Millennium Tower, the 60-story luxury project in SoMa set to open in April, will soon announce it is slicing all prices by 15 percent to entice buyers. In a surprising move,
Final 3Q2008 GDP came in today at -0.5%, which is even from the -0.5% second reading on November 25 and down from the -0.3% initial reading we got October 30. As of November 25, the -0.5% was the largest quarterly decline since the tail end of the last recession in 2001. Six days after that
Overall Personal Consumption Expenditures, the Fed’s favorite measure of consumer inflation, were -0.5% in October and +3.2% year-over-year through October. Excluding volatile oil and food costs from the readings, “Core” PCE for October was unchanged and +2.0% YOY through October. Here’s a link to complete PCE numbers for 3Q2008. The Fed tends to look at