Mortgage Rates
A nice little relief for the last 7 days, but we will just call it a pause, not a trend.
Mortgage rates in Idaho have come off their 4.5 year highs this week to settle in the 4.625-4.75% range, after almost touching the 5.00% on April 25th.
The improvements have mostly been due to worry about the trade war with China. And yep, it is becoming a trade war, with China not purchasing quite a bit of soy bean and other agricultural items from the US and purchasing it from Brazil. This is the main headline that is keeping stocks down and bond prices up, thus keeping interest rates stable with a little improvement.
If it wasn’t for Trade, rates would be diving, all the economic news this weeks was pretty darn good:
Personal Spending up 0.4% in March.
Personal income, up 0.3% in March.
ADP private payroll up 204,000
US non-farm payroll 164,000
March Non Farm payroll revised from 103,000 to 135,000
Then let’s look at Housing numbers:
Housing Starts 1.319M vs est. of 1.262M
Building Permits 1.354M vs est. of 1.323M
March Existing Home Sales 5.6M vs est of 5.55M
New home Sales, March, 694,000 vs est. of 630,000
March Pending Home sales 0.4% vs est of 0.9%, our only negative number.
For those new to this charge, RED=BAD or rates going up, GREEN=Good or rates going down. This is called a Japanese Candle Stick Inverted Chart. The multi-colored lines, pink, blue, green, baby blue, are trend lines, or moving averages, 10 day, 25 day, 50 day, 100 day, and 200 day. They will cause either a bottom or in our case right now a Top, meaning that rates will not improve above those lines with out some significant news, i.e. war, trade war, N. Korea, etc.
Overall the economy is looking pretty good, we are starting to see slowing numbers in housing. Talking heads are associating this with low inventory, but we are starting to hear some talk about frustration and people not wanting to move now and are going to focus on remodeling existing homes.
We are still in a locking mode, this slight improvement on rates in the last 7 days was not a trend, it just put us in a new trading channel.
Fall out Programs
Don’t forget, if borrowers are declined for conventional or FHA or VA or RD, there is fall out programs. Many lenders will not do FHA/VA/RD under a 600 FICO score, we have lenders that will take FHA and VA down to 500 FICO scores and RD down to 550 FICO scores.
There are also Non-prime loans, that allow for 12 months or 24 months’ bank statements, or Day 1 out of Bankruptcy. Don’t let a deal die just because a bank or credit union said NO. Check out all of the scenarios, Link to NonPrime Lending Page Here.
Idaho Housing increased income limits
I typically do not repeat past blogs, but wanted to this time because it doesn’t happen very often! Idaho Housing increased their income limits on most of their products from $90,000 to $110,000. That $20,000 increase means more people are eligible for IHA low interest rates and Down Payment Assistance programs. A quick rundown:
Loan Product
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Ada County
1-2 Person
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Ada County
3+ Person
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Canyon County
1-2 Person
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Canyon County 3+ Person
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First Loan Plus
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$70,300
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$80,845
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$84,360
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$98,420
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First Loan FHA
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$70,300
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$80,845
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$84,360
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$98,420
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Other IHA Loans
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$110,000
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$110,000
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$110,000
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$110,000
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Call us if you have questions about other counties in Idaho.
Realtor Marketing Idea
Are you a member of your local neighborhood NextDoor web site. What is that you may ask, well there is a Facebook style Web application called Nextdoor, that allow all of your neighbors to complain, snitch, ask for help and get general information.
It is actually quite funny what is posted on there. But for you, as a Realtor, you need to have a presence and become an expert.
DO NOT advertise, because a resource on there. As an example, on my NextDoor, I posted last week the Boise Regional Realtors info graphic on what home prices are. I just posted and said: “WOW, looks what prices did last month”. And posted it. I didn’t say I was a lender or even a Real Estate Professional.
But sure enough the next day, I have 5 comments and a question was asked of me with regards to rates. I was able to answer that!
So get on there, and start becoming a resource, link here: https://nextdoor.com
And remember, don’t advertise, be a resource. Then you will get the leads!