Mortgage Rates
Rates this week were pretty much flat, we began the week with some nice improvements, based on…yep…you guessed it, words from Trump and N. Korea. Then as the week progressed and news about Huston came rolling in, traders fled stocks and went towards bonds, thus improving rates a little more. But today, Friday, rates worsened over news that the US economy is doing pretty good, still.
Some economic news of importance:
- Consumer Confidence 122.9 vs est. of 120.6, remember 50 is the break even point, so we are WELL above that, and this is a KEY report to watch if we think we are going into a recession.
- ADP private payroll added 237,000 job on estimate of 185,000, showing nice job growth still.
- GDP or Gross Domestic Product, i.e. the US economy, for the 2nd quarter, was revised from a 2.7% to a 3.0%. Although some economist are not feeling that 3.0 is accurate.
- July Pending Home Sales -0.8% vs est. of +0.5%, this was a pretty big GULP factor for the Real Estate Economy, and is showing that inventory is really too tight.
- And finally the big one for the month, unemployment numbers for August was 156,000 new job created vs est. of 180,000, quite a big miss, but what really got people worried is that July was revised down from 209,000 to 189,000, and June was revised down about 20,000 also. Could the recovery be stalling?
Over all the economic news this week was pretty good, until those unemployment numbers came out. Today was a short trading day, so traders made their knee-jerk reaction to the numbers and went to Marth’s Vineyard. We will see what they really think about the numbers and what happens over the weekend when trading comes back on Tuesday.
Overall, we are still in a locking as soon as you can mode. Rates have nicely improved over the last 2 weeks, and are definitely under the 4% mark. Things that could drive us further down:
- There is another HUGE hurricane in the middle of the Atlantic, heading towards us. Another major hit to the US could drive the US economy into a slow down or even recession.
- Trump and N. Korea continue to exchange words..and dare we say it..a military skirmish.
- Unemployment ticking up, we will have to wait for next month’s unemployment numbers, but if we start to continue to see a slide, investors will starting running towards bonds.
Items that will increase rates:
Other than the economy, the biggest thing will be Tax Reform. If the President and Congress get their act together, and reform the tax code. We will see a HUGE rally in the stock market, and bonds sell off, thus increasing rates.
Credit repair companies
Here is an article about the CFPB “banishing” a company from doing credit repair. It is a pretty good read: Link Here
My opinion, I have yet to see a credit repair company do anything above and beyond a typicaly person can do for free. And from the repairs I have seen and the amount the borrowers have spent, it is almost embarrassing. We do not recommend that anyone utilize a credit repair company, and I know that there are lenders here in the valley that do, and are probably getting kick backs. With the new rules and laws that have changed how the credit bureaus work, it is pretty simple to removed wrong or inaccurate information by just going to www.annualcreditreport.com , pulling your free credit report for EACH bureau, and disputing the information online. 
Furthermore, if that doesn’t work, you can go to the CFPB web site, and file a complaint with regards to the wrong information, and they will help in getting it resolved.
Rule of thumb…if it too good to be true, it probably is.
And don’t forget:
-FHA mortgage for purchase and refinance now down to a 500 FICO score, yep, that isn’t a typo, 500: http://www.375loan.com/loan_products/fha_home_loans/
-12 month and 24 month bank statement programs for self employed people: http://www.375loan.com/loan_products/non_prime_lending/
-1 day out of Bankruptcy/Foreclosure
Benefits of a broker, we have 100’s of loan programs for almost any type of borrower, unlike the banks and credit unions.