Rates
Rates have been stable for almost 3 weeks in Idaho now; we are in the high 3’s on conventional and the mid 3’s on government rates. It is anticipated on staying in this trading range for a while due to 3 factors:
1-Debt ceiling, yep, US government and used all the debt the law allows and now the Treasury needs to go back to the bank, i.e. Debt Holders, for more money to keep the US government working. This will be a battle in Congress, stay tuned. Results, if the US defaults on debt, then think Greece, causing interest rates to shoot up. If they extend the debt, which they probably will, then we will keep trading in this similar channel.
2-US Budget, lots of chatter, no movement on the US budget.
These top two will also depend upon the Speaker of the House being elected, which at news today seems to be Paul Ryan, and if that is the case, we may be in for a dog fight on these two items.
3-Federal Reserve raising rates, we are pretty sure that the Fed will start raising rates in November and/or December. And this will cause rates to trade pretty volatile for a couple of days, but for the most part we should see mortgage rate tick much past the 4.25% mark, and most traders have priced in the Fed Rate last month, and when they did we had rates in the 4.25% range.
I am so glad I live in Idaho and balance our budget!
Some weekly numbers of importance:
- Existing home sales 5.55M vs 5.38M, very nice number.
- Weekly Jobless Claims, 259,000 vs est. 265,000, HOLY cow very low number.
- Housing Starts 1.206M vs est. 1.150M, nice number.
- Building permits 1.103M vs est. 1.170M, slowing down, typical for this time of year, rolling into winter.
So I don’t expect anything much to cause rates to go up or down over the next few week’s, we do have on 11/6, unemployment numbers, always a rough day. But unless we get some wild economic news from overseas, rates should remain flat until something happens on the above 3 items.
Floating for now.
TRID
Well we are 3 weeks into TRID and it SUCKS, and many of you are wondering what TRID stand for:
The
Reason
I
Drink
Idaho Title companies are totally a mess, they are unable to figure out how to properly disclose title insurance and each lender is asking for something different, it is truly a mess.
I have issued 11+ Loan estimators this month, all of them have gone pretty smooth, once title gets me what I am needing, but we still have lenders re-issuing Loan Estimators wrong, not giving credit.
And starting next week, we will be starting to close loans and issuing Closing Disclosures, more chaos.
Couple of things to remember for Realtors:
-Make sure that any fees are given to the lender PRIOR to the Closing Disclosure being issued, this would include:
-Transaction Coordinator Fees (IF borrower is paying for it)
-Home Warranty Fees
-Invoices for repairs
-HOA Fees
-Make sure you have given title your IREC License number.
-Once the CD is issued, DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING.
-Make sure you are reviewing the CD with your borrowers.
Another item of issue has come up with borrowers who don’t have email, 2 of mine so far. We had to either have them come back to the office to sign “acknowledgement” that they received the LE and “acknowledgement” of intent to proceed.
At this point in time patience is prevailing, but like most people, frustration is starting to take over.
And in news of People doing wrong thing:
Title company fined for taking Realtors on a cruise, RESPA section 8 violation, it looks like the CFPB and State regulators are REALLY looking for these violations:
http://www.inman.com/2015/09/02/title-company-fined-for-hosting-river-cruises-attended-by-real-estate-agents-brokers/
Article regarding Lender getting fined for having marketing agreements with Realtors:
http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/news/compliance-regulation/cfpb-puts-writing-on-wall-for-marketing-agreements-1063066-1.html
Lead Generator
Yep, stealing this one from another Realtor…
Go out and buy say 100 pumpkins, total cost, maybe $200, and hand deliver them to your past clients, if they are not home, just leave them on the door step, but have a cool little tag or flyer attached by a string around the stem, thanking them for their business and don’t forget to attach a business card or 2.