Rates
This week we again saw rates improved, but just a little, not in any decimal point you would see, but still an improvement. But we have finally hit a ceiling of resistance that is going to be hard to break.
This week, again, all news affecting us was out of Europe, will Russia invade, with the ECB stimulate the EU economy, will Justin Beiber be allowed to go to England, you know, all that important stuff.
Because if it was about US economy, this week news was all good and rates would have gone up:
-Federal Reserve say US economy is ticking along, albeit not as fast as they would like.
-Existing home sale 4.65M vs est. of 4.69M close enough, still positive.
-New Home Sales 433K vs est. of 425K, last month revised from 384K to 407K
-Weekly unemployment numbers, slightly up, but still in line with expectation.
So what does this all mean, well rates are in for a bubble burst! We are at our best levels since early October! And bond traders are getting nervous, rates are NOT supposed to be this high right now, we should be at very best in the High 4’s, and really should be in the low 5’s.
Federal Reserve reduce their QE3 bond buying this month, again purchase a total of $45B in bonds, this is down from $85B when they started, so little over ½ reduction and rates have only ticked up <1 point from their bottom of 3.25%.
I am in a neutral to locking standpoint right now. Gambling may pay off for about .125 or 1/8 of a point, but be ready to lock on a moment’s notice, chances of seeing a .25 improvement will take quite a bit of pressure from some outside source.
IHA Changes
IHA is going through quite a bit of changes and here is their lates.
Beginning on July 1st, a borrower utilizing First Time home buyer products will have to have .5% of their own money into the transaction. So $500 for every $100,000 borrowers.
Still not a bad deal, that is still close to 100% financing! And they still have $8000 Grants, and downpayment assistance and GIFT money.
IHA ROCKS, don’t let any other lender tell you different!
VA and QM
Well QM or qualified mortgage has been out since January 10th when it was released. So it took until Tuesday for the VA to release their guidelines for the QM loans.
And basically they told Frank & Dodd, who created the legislation, to leave them alone. Basically ALL VA home loans are QM loans!
So take that Frank & Dodd, quite legislating us and fix the National Debt!!!
Mortgage Calculators
There is A LOT of confusion regarding mortgage calculators. Lots of calculators on the web only give Principal & Interest Payment, but forget about Mortgage Insurance, Taxes, Hazard insurance and Up Front Mortgage Insurance.
Well I have set up a web site that will allow people to get accurate PITI payments. On my site it has a mortgage calculator that will calculate PITI and also a link to my Mortgage Calculator APP for your smart phone, that is really accurate.
I update rates on the App weekly, so it is very accurate, link here: http://www.375loan.com/calculators/
Zillow
Got a bunch of hits on my comments about Zillow this week on Facebook.
If we are not friends of Facebook, link here, I am Hilarious if I do say so myself:
www.facebook.com/jerry.robinson.1694059
But please keep this in mind, one day Zillow is going to get their calculations right, and help people with legal contracts, and they will be a FORCE to reckon with for Realtors!!!
You need to prove to your clients why you are better than an online web site.