Rates,
Well after 2 months of rates worsening, we got a pause this week, and unless Greece collapses (which is possible) this will probably be temporary, so lock them!!!
This week we say some pretty good economic news:
-Housing Starts 897K vs est. of 1.040M, really low, blamed on weather.
-Building permits 1.092M vs. est. of 1.070M, prediction of a NICE spring.
-Jobless claims 291K vs est. of 294K, lower than expected, and still under 300K
And that was pretty much all…right…nope we have the Federal Reserve speak this week.
Janet Yellen came out Wednesday and it was a pretty much positive but cautious look on the US economy, lots of boring details, but what was taken away from this is that the Fed probably will not increase rates in June and the bets are September now.
Well EVERYONE liked this news and the Stock market and the Bond market ROARED!!!
Rates improved though out the day on Wednesday, and once again we dipped back into the 3’s. Rates last week were hovering around the 4.00 – 4.125% mark, and this week we came back down to the high 3’s!
We also say government rates drop again also.
Rally, nope, just a pause in the run up of rates.
Could we see rates drop lower, slight chance but I am still telling people now to lock them when they can. Gamblers may fair well here, but let’s not complain about where rates are at this time.
Next week reports are all lame until Friday, when GDP and Consumer Sentiment comes out.
Now on to the dragging saga of Greece and the wild cards:
Greece, seems Greece made their interest payment to the EU yesterday, but rumor is that they “borrowed” (Stole) from pension funds and utility funds (hmmm taking a lesson from the US raiding Social Security??).
Russia, moving nukes into Crimea?
Watch these stories, rates should continue a slow rise upwards, with some bounces down everyone once in a while, unless Greece and Russia get back into play.
CD and LE
Still waiting for IREC to approve my class, but sat in on 3 web training this week with regards to the new disclosures being released 8/1/2015. Little over 4 months to go, and I am still surprise that there are people in this industry that don’t know what will happen.
Keep watching here, training is coming!!!
Latest and greatest this week:
A whole alphabet of agencies are asking the CFPB to refrain from enforcing the law, i.e. give us 90 day period after 8/1/2015, so if a CD or LE is messed up, lender is not fined.
CFPB changed their rule on locking a loan, previously if a borrower locked the loan, the new LE had to be sent to them that day, now they are giving us 3 days to disclose.
Lead Generator
Well it is spring, and next week is spring break, time to go visit the neighbors and tell them again that I am a loan officer.
You can do the same, go but a bunch of Tulip bulbs, and then tie around the top one of your business cards! Hand them out to all of your neighbors.