Mortgage Market Update
by Tom on July 17, 2009
in Market Musings, Mortgage Matters, Mortgage Rate Updates
So what’s happening in the markets today? A couple of things:
- Earnings reports came out for GE, Citibank, Bank of America and a few others. The results were decidedly mixed.
- Like I wrote earlier, housing starts came in unexpectedly higher than planned. This seems like it would be a good thing but it’s actually posing a bit of a problem for the bond market. Why’s that? Because of inventory concerns. Many areas of the country still have inventory problems and there’s concern that we’re adding to the problem by building more inventory. It will be interesting to watch and see whether we’re starting to see the new home market hit a “bottom” and limp along at a bottom or whether this is a minor statistical variation. Time will tell.
My recommendation remains to lock all loans. There are significantly more upside risks due to perceived risk of inflation (long term), perceived signs of economic strength that are pushing rates up, and signs that the worst is over in the banking industry, than there are issues that would push rates down.
I’ll have a more in depth look at the markets this week in my Mortgage Market Week in Review. In the column on the left hand side at http://straighttalkaboutmortgages.com and sign up for your copy.
Thanks!
Tom Vanderwell
Here are a couple of the rates that I’m quoting today:
Purchase, 30 year fixed, 30 day rate lock, loan amount of $275,000, 80% loan to value, 5.25% with 0 pts or 5.0% with .75 pts.
Purchase, 30 year fixed, 30 day rate lock, FHA, 3.5% down, $175,000 sales price, 5.25% with 1 pts or 5.5% with 0 pts.
Rate and term refinance, 80% loan to value, 60 day rate lock, under $417,000, 5.625% with 0 pts.
All conventional rates quoted assume a 740 or better credit score. FHA assumes a 620 credit score.
APRs available upon request
