San Diego Mortgage Group

How Did The Employment Report Affect Mortgage Rates?

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:38:10 +0000

It is the first Friday of the month and that brings us the official government report on the labor market: The Employment Situation Report, the most highly anticipated montly dataset available to the market. This release provides four headline measures on the health of the jobs sector. Nonfarm Payrolls: totals the number of jobs that were added to or cut from employer payrolls in the prior month. Consensus Forecast: -100,000 vs. -131,000 in July (Private payrolls increased 71,000 in July and +41,000 expected today) Unemployment Rate: the percentage of working-age, mentally able-Americans who are jobless. Consensus Forecast: 9.6% of the labor force vs. 9.5% last month Average Hourly Earnings: the average amount of earnings per hour of labor performed. Consensus Forecast: +0.1% vs. +0.2% last…(read more)

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ON THE ROAD FROM RECOVERY TO REVITALIZATION

Jesse D — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:39:40 +0000

Five years ago, one of the most destructive natural disasters in our nation’s history hit the Gulf Coast. When they hit the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita took thousands of lives, displaced millions of residents, wiped out hundreds of square miles of coastal land, and inflicted major damage to nearly 300,000 homes.

Mortgage Rates Move Higher Before Jobs Data

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:42:00 +0000

What a boring day in the markets! Stocks added to yesterday’s gains and bonds added to their losses. This pushed mortgage rates marginally higher. The best 30 year fixed mortgage rates are still in the 4.125% to 4.375% range for well-qualified consumers, but less lenders are offering rates below 4.25% today. If your lender is still willing to offer a rate below 4.25%, your closing costs are about 25bps higher today (0.25% of your loan amount). AQ’s comments from yesterday still apply… We’re not panicking over this sell off. There has been no change in our fundamental economic outlook, we see no new reason to be optimistic about a rapid recovery. What we witnessed today was a technical adjustment, an adjustment that could reverse course on Friday morning if the Employment Situation Report…(read more)

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New Mortgage Rate Lows Lost as Stocks Rally and Bonds Correct

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:50:00 +0000

Mortgage rates had a great day yesterday. This is the message we communicated to readers… ATTENTION: Mortgage Rates Hit New Lows If you’ve been floating your loan or have yet to apply for a refinance because it just didn’t seem worth the hassle, congratulations, mortgage rates hit new lows today, it’s now worth the hassle! If you’ve refinanced in the last 20 months, there is a darn good chance your refinance option is back in the money, again! The best 30 year fixed mortgage rates have fallen into the 4.125% to 4.375% range for well-qualified consumers. Some lenders will even go as low as 3.875% if the borrower is willing to pay points. Although the 4.125% quote isn’t being offered by the large retail banks (sorry retail L.Os), the smaller mortgage bankers and independent brokers do have…(read more)

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ATTENTION: Mortgage Rates Hit New Lows

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:18:00 +0000

If you’ve been floating your loan or have yet to apply for a refinance because it just didn’t seem worth the hassle, congratulations, mortgage rates hit new lows today. If you’ve refinanced in the last 20 months, there is a darn good chance your refinance option is back in the money, again! The best 30 year fixed mortgage rates have fallen into the 4.125% to 4.375% range for well-qualified consumers. Some lenders will even go as low as 3.875% if the borrower is willing to pay points. Although the 4.125% quote isn’t being offered by the large retail banks (sorry retail L.Os), the smaller mortgage bankers and independent brokers do have access to loan pricing that will allow them to offer new rate lows. So this brings us full circle on the advice we offered consumers almost one month ago today…(read more)

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What Might Move Mortgage Rates in the Week Ahead?

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:44:00 +0000

Last week ended on a very sour note for mortgage rates… After a better than expected read on 2nd quarter GDP and a not so scary speech from the Federal Reserve Chairman, the 10 year Treasury note yield rose 16.6 basis points and mortgage-backed securities prices fell significantly. This forced lenders to reprice for the worse, which increased mortgage rates. Although consumer borrowing costs rose by about 10 basis points on the week (0.10% of the loan amount), the best 30 year fixed mortgage rates remained in a range between 4.25% and 4.50%. The economic calendar is quite busy this week. The most influential report will be released on Friday; the Employment Situation Report. Because this data provides an in-depth look at the health of the driving force behind consumer spending, the labor…(read more)

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HUD AWARDS $312 MILLION IN DISASTER RECOVERY GRANTS TO HELP STATES REDUCE DAMAGES FROM FUTURE DISASTERS

Jesse D — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:06:32 +0000

WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today awarded nearly $312 million to 13 states to invest in efforts to reduce the human, physical, and economic toll of future disasters. The grants announced today are provided through HUD’s Disaster Recovery Enhancement Fund (DREF) and are intended to encourage states to undertake activities and long-term strategies that focus on reducing damages from future natural disasters.

HUD ANNOUNCES $189 MILLION AVAILABLE TO REVITALIZE COMMUNITIES

Jesse D — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:06:31 +0000

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today that it is making $189 million in grants available to transform public and assisted housing and to revitalize communities. Appearing in today’s Federal Register are the Notices of Funding Availability, the federal application, for two revitalization initiatives: The Choice Neighborhoods FY 2010 and the HOPE VI FY 2010. Both applications can be accessed at www.grants.gov.

Mortgage Rates Marginally Worse After Jobless Claims Data

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:28:00 +0000

Poor reads on housing and manufacturing helped mortgage rates move back to historic lows yesterday. However as the day progressed mortgage-backed securities prices fell from their highs and some lenders were forced to reprice for the worse. Rate sheet recalls were not broad based though. We had only one economic report this morning: Weekly Jobless Claims. Released by the Department of Labor, this report provides three timely metrics on the health of the labor market: Initial Jobless Claims: totals the number of Americans who filed for first time unemployment benefits in the previous week Continued Claims: totals the number of Americans who continue to file for benefits due to an inability to find a new job Extended and Emergency Benefits: totals the number of Americans who have exhausted their…(read more)

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Mortgage Rates Mixed After Scattered Lender Reprices

admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:51:00 +0000

Much like yesterday, mortgage rates rallied early this morning following weak housing data. Much like yesterday, mortgage rates came under pressure in the lunch hours today as mortgage-backed securities prices fell from intraday highs. Much UNLIKE yesterday, mortgage rates never recovered from that weakness heading into the market close today. The bad news isn't all that bad though…. While several lenders did reprice for the worse this afternoon, the majority of rate sheets escaped unscathed. This leaves mortgage rates close to the most aggressive levels of our lifetime. As for the lenders who did reprice for the worse (the bad news), adjustments to loan pricing simply cancelled out the improvements seen this morning, leaving consumer borrowing costs unchanged on a day over day basis…(read more)

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