In a holiday-shortened week with no major economic data releases, expect worries about the credit markets and speculation about holiday shopping to take center stage. Last week was a mixed bag for the economy and mortgage markets responded in kind. Rates were relatively unchanged. The news started with Wednesday’s Retail Sales report. In showing a [...]
October’s Consumer Price Index was released Thursday and showed a 3.5 percent increase in the cost of living since October 2006. The report also showed a core inflation rate of 2.2 percent. The “core CPI” is a smaller part of the overall CPI. The math is the same, but it specifically excludes cost changes in [...]
Statistic #1: According to the Census Bureau, 69% of Americans are homeowners. Statistic #2: According to lawyers.com, 42% of Americans have a basic will. Basic Math: 27% of American homeowners are in need of a basic will. Addressing mortality can be difficult for some people, but even more difficult is addressing a home that’s been [...]
This morning, RealtyTrac released its Q3 2007 foreclosure data for the United States. The leading cities for foreclosures are: Stockton, CA (1 per 31 households) Detroit, MI (1 per 33 households) Riverside/San Bernardino, CA (1 per 43 households) Fort Lauderdale, FL (1 per 48 households) Las Vegas, NV (1 per 48 households) Sacramento, CA (1 [...]
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and NASDAQ shed 4.1% and 6.5%, respectively, last week. Normally, this would be good news for mortgage rates because investors tend to look for “safe havens” in bond issues, but instead, just treasuries benefited last week. Mortgage bonds were left in the dust. Mortgage rates finished to the upside after [...]
We talk a lot about how mortgage bonds are the driving force behind mortgage rates but we never get into the math of it. So, to help our understanding of the subject, let’s delve a little deeper. Here’s the (very simplified) math behind it: If you pay $100 today for a $6 annual interest payment [...]
After running neck-and-neck for several months, interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages and adjustable-rate mortgages are finally diverging. Despite pricing worse than its fixed-rate counterpart throughout much of August and September, ARMs are now close to 0.375 percent lower for conforming products sold through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This equates to roughly $25 per month [...]
If it feels like mortgage approvals are harder to come by than in years past, that’s because it is. And we’re not just talking about sub-prime mortgages (for which the market has nearly vanished in just 12 months). According to a story on Marketwatch, mortgage guidelines are more challenging for everyone to meet — gold-star [...]
With gas prices up 37% nationally since this time last year, Americans have grown accustomed to driving a little bit further just to find a “gas bargain”. But, is it worth it? Based on today’s national average gas price of $3.00 and assuming a 15-gallon fill-up and a 20 miles-per-gallon vehicle, a car owner would [...]
As we saw last week, the economy is simultaneously hot and cold. This makes for a strange ride on Wall Street because stocks and bonds tend to move on emotion rather than on fact. This “mob mentality” is one reason why mortgage rates have bounced up and down so much lately. For example, we saw [...]
