Rates this week
Well rates cooled off a little this week, as oil rose, and I think they might have found a bottom, atleast for a while. So I have been recommending locking, with rates this low, it is a greater likelihood of them going up than rates going down. We are seeing government rates hovering around 3.25% and conventional in the high 3’s.
It will take A LOT of movement to get government rates below the 3.25%, there is a technical floor there, and to break it, we would need to see oil probably dip below $22/barrel or some other huge economic news. Not to say it isn’t going to happen, but it would be hard.
In other economic news that affects rates, inflation data came out this week, and although we did see some “hot” numbers, it is still below the Federal Reserve’s target of 2.0%. We are starting to see some signed that inflation may be coming back, but with oil so low, I don’t see the Fed Moving.
And speaking of the Fed, it was anticipated that the Federal Reserve was going to increase rates again in March, right now it is a <50% shot that they will, especially since most countries have gone Negative Rates. Next month’s meeting will be VERY interesting!
Like I indicated, if you are floating any government loans, probably good time to lock them, and for the conventional loans, well it is a Texas Size Gamble on Oil.
TRID & Its affects
Ellie Mae has come out with a report this month that has shown the average closing in January had increased to 50 total day. This is up from average closing days in October of 46 days and November of 49 days. And the reason, TRID.
It is still a huge headache for lenders and title companies, and this survey just confirmed it. Closings are getting longer and longer. 1st Choice Mortgage is still seeing closings happen in 30-35 days, but with the prime selling season coming up, we do anticipate seeing closings taking longer and longer.
Here is the breakdown:
Conventional Loan have gone from 40 to 50 days
FHA loan have gone from 49 to 51 days
VA Loan have gone from 52 to 53 days
Something that also came out of this survey, average FICO score from December to January dropped from 722 to 719.
And finally….
Well we tell clients what not to do, i.e. don’t get new credit, don’t buy new cars. And we hand them flyes, telling them what not to do. But yet they still don’t seem to get it. So 1st Choice Mortgage is taking the next step, we made a video, link is here, and we hope you like it: https://youtu.be/1QaobuwalxA
Don’t forget, Subprime is BACK! Day 1 out of BK or Foreclosure, yep YOU CAN GET A HOME!!!
More info on the link here: /loan_products/non_prime_lending/