Rates
Rates are closed today, and thank God, it has been a rough week.
Rates ended up for the week, losing all the ground they gained last week because some politicians got together and sign a dumb peace accord between Russia and Ukraine.
Thank you Mr. Putin for ruining our good rates.
So all week, we have had pretty good economic news:
-Retails sales up 1.1% vs est of 0.8%
-CPI inflation a tad high, but in line.
-Home Builder sentiment 47 vs 50, not a big market mover, but negative.
-Building permits and housing starts came in where expected.
-Industrial Production higher, good for economy.
So for most of the week, rates were flat from or trading in a very narrow range, until Thursday, then THUD.
EU, USA, Russia and Ukraine all signed a Peace Accord, basically telling everyone to mind their own business and for Russia to leave Ukraine alone.
This took off any bond buyer’s move to safe investments, and caused a 53 BPS move to worsen rates, or about .125 in interest rates.
Bond market actually closed early yesterday for the Holiday weekend and are closed all day today as well. So I suspect that prevented the bond from selling off anymore. I suspect that if we would of traded another 2 hours, and the trend lines goes, we would of say probably another .25 bps sell off, and more sell off today.
Next week lots of housing data, not expecting HUGE number, but positive numbers. Thursday Durable Goods comes out, will be a market mover if the number is positive.
I am in a lock mode now, with Russia/Ukraine off the table now, unless something happens over the weekend, there is nothing in the news to really improve rates.
CFPB
Our lovely government released the forms for the new GFE/TIL this week, and updated on how to fill them out. Be wary of the 8/1/2015 deadline when all of these new forms have to go into affect!
Here is the new TILGFE: http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201312_cfpb_tila-respa_loan-estimate.pdf
Here is one filled out: http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201403_cfpb_loan-estimate_fixed-rate-loan-sample-H24B.pdf
I might add, that APR is still there, but we have a NEW ACRONYM!!!
TIP or Total Interest Percentage: The total about of interest that you will pay over the loan term as a percentage of your loan amount.
Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.
CFPB and RESPA
So our Government Sheriff is going after Realtors now for taking “marketing” money from title companies and loan officer in violation of RESPA section 8.
You need to get with your broker, but any advertising a Realtor can only pay for equal amount some examples:
1-Do some co branding on a flyer, such as a mailer: Realtor 50%, Loan officer 50%
2-Do some co branding on a flyer with a Realtor/Title officer/Loan officer: 33.333% each.
3-Sponsoring a party for Realtors with food, Real Estate company 50% of bill, Loan Officer 50% of the bill.
So what happens if your lender pays more than 50%, it is not pretty.
I bring this up because I just head a story of a realtor explaining that his mortgage lender buys his business cards for him. The lenders gets a special deal on the business cards because he has a place that has great prices. But doesn’t charge the Realtor.
$69 worth of business cards for a Jail Cell or at minimum $50K in fines…ouch.
Speaking of business cards.
Do you hand out atleast 500 cards each month or 17 cards per day??? Why not??
It amazes me to see how many people still have their original box of cards.
So go out this week and I challenge you to see just how many you can give out to:
Wal-Mart Checker, Gas station attendant, Title Front Desk person, baby sitter, Child’s school teacher.