Rates
Well who says Bernanke has no power, I surely don’t.
Over the last 3 weeks, we have seen rates continue their trek to 2013 highs, as the economy improves and more people flock to stocks.
But May has not been for the faint of heart or for those fence post sitters. And Wednesday was a VERY nasty day for interest rates. So let’s see what happened.
Over the last 3 weeks, economic news has been all good, starting with the unemployment numbers on the 1st week, to housing numbers that some feel like another bubble is coming around.
So it was no surprise when the Federal Reserve came out on Wednesday and stated how the economy is moving along. What was the dramatic news is that the talk that the Federal Reserve is going to start unwinding their purchase of Mortgage Back Securities, which has kept interest rates at such lows. And the comment that it could come as soon as June 2013.
It has been expected that the Fed would stop pushing rates down, but the expectation was in mid to late 2014, NOT NEXT MONTH.
So in 1 day, we say mortgage back securities jump 100 bps, thus pushing rates up by .25% in some cases.
This is one of the largest 1 day jumps I have seen in my 10 years of doing this.
And since Wednesday, rates have continued their rise, where as by next week, we will probably not see anymore 3’s for conventional financing, and we will lose 3.25% for the government rates and jump to 3.50%
Now don’t get me wrong, anything in the 4’s and 3’s are still pretty GREAT rates.
But if true, and the Federal Reserve is not going to push rates down, then we can expect mid 4’s for rates.
So other economic news of note:
-April existing homes sales up .6% over March, and Y/Y up 9.7%
-Weekly jobless claims, down 23K to 340,000
-April new home sales, jumped 2.3% and Y/Y up 15%.
-Nationally there is 4.1 months of inventory, but locally it seems like we only have about 1 month of inventory.
-April durable goods, up 3.3%
So at this point in time, don’t float rates, lock them as soon as you can
FHA deadline
Don’t forget, anyone getting their FHA case number after 6/3/2013 will be living with FHA mortgage insurance for the life of the loan.
You don’t need to close the loan, just have an address and order the case number before 5/31/2013.
And from the Chicken Little Sky is falling…
RD deadline for Kuna is 9/30/2013. With that being said, they have extended it 2x before, so 50/50 shot of Kuna losing their RD status. Anyone’s guess.
100% financing
Still have people calling, YES if you are 3 year out of a Bankruptcy, Foreclosure, or Short sale, there is 100% financing for you.
And then for the rest of the people, YES there is 100% financing available.