Rates
Well after early gains in rates, which means they went down, today was not pretty.
Interest rates once again have broken through and continue to raise, so let’s see why.
-FHFA home price index increased by 0.6% last month and 5.6% year over year. But in Ada and Canyon Counties, we are seeing some HUGE numbers.
-Weekly jobless claims increased by 25K to 365K, still high but again ticking down.
-Looks like the European Debit Crisis is softening ,which is causing people to purchase stocks rather than bonds. Bad news for interest rates.
-December new home sales fell 7.3%, but November’s was revised up from 377K to 398K. But for all of 2012, new home sales were up 19.9%, best increase since 1983.
So all of this good news has once again caused rates to increase this week as well. As stated in previous Blogs, October was pretty much the bottom for rates.
Chart above shows us that today, we have a huge red dip, so red=BAD for rates, but what is further of importance, is that the red line had dipped below a floor, and if we continue to see the Fannie Mae bond below that floor, this will create a new floor and thus rates will increase even more.
We are recommending locking rates as soon as you can.
CFPB strikes again
Another Encyclopedia of regulations were again released by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. This time once again restricting Loan Officers and their compensation, along with more rules for Loan Officers.
The rules will go into affect in June, so look for more complex disclosures.
In reading what I have, the only good is that now Bank Loan Officers will have to comply with the same Licensing Requirement that Mortgage Brokers have to comply with. Which are very restrictive. So that means quite a few Bank Loan Officers will be losing their jobs.
Currently, I have to go through a: Finger Print Check, Credit Report Check, Financial Check, Background Check, Continued Education, Yearly Licensing Requirements, and a bunch of reports, reports, reports.
Also a LO can't have any Foreclosures, Shortsales, Bankruptcy, Liens, Judgements, Back Child Support.
So when I say I am squeaky clean, I have the Federal Government to prove it!
But Banking Loan officers do not have to do all of that, sure they do the back ground check, but I know many, many LO's who are not financially fit to get a loan for a Big Mac.