Rates
Another wild week for the stock market and for mortgage rates, with Idaho mortgage rates actually squeaking out slight improvement over last week. And so far for 2016, mortgage rate has almost improved a whole quarter of a point on some programs.
We are seeing conventional rates settler around the 3.99 to 3.875 and Government rates settler somewhere between 3.625 to 3.75. Very nice, but we are not expecting these to hold for every. It is looking that Oil may have found a bottom, well for now, which will keep the stock market from crashing. And it looks like most investors are looking at China as bottoming soon. But keep in mind, these two areas could continue to be volatile and cause more chaos in the markets.
I am a locking zone now, we have been blessed with some nice improvement on rates, so take them while you can, sure there is opportunity for more downward play, but greater risk of rates going up. Especially if investors start to focus on US economic numbers:
This week we saw:
Existing home sales 5.46M vs est. of 5.20M, nice number!
Unemployment claims were up 293,000 vs est. of 278,000 large jump, but I feel it is mainly oil workers.
Building permits 1.232M vs est. of 1.200M, lots of building going to happen in the spring!
Housing Starts 1.149M vs est 1.200M, lower, but close enough to blame weather.
January Consumer Sentiment 93.3 vs est. of 93.0 still way above 50 which is good!
Rates are still at historic lows, take advantage of them now!
What NOT to do!
Have you ever wanted a good resource for your borrowers to read about what not to do when applying for a home loan, well, we created a web page exactly for that, and as we get more and more Frequently Asked Question, we will be adding them, Link Here: http://www.375loan.com/resources/what_not_to_do/
Millennials
Here is a GREAT infographic on Millennials created by Avant. Keep in mind, this is the KEY 1st Time Home Buyer that will drive the Real Estate Economy for the next 5-10 years!
