First Time Home Buyers
From the monthly archives: March 2008
What an interesting couple of months. Yesterday’s Fed Funds Rate cut did indeed cause the markets to jump and jump significantly. Mortgage rates typically increase when the Fed Funds Rate decreases.
In interesting news that came far too late for Bear Stearns’ shareholders, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight reported an initiative to [...]
Continue Reading →The Fed has reduced the Federal Funds Rate by .75%. This brings the benchmark to 2.25% and the Prime Rate to 5.25%.
This is great news if you are looking for a new credit card. Mortgages don’t always respond the same way.
This has triggered a bond sell-off and, more than ever, this [...]
Continue Reading →Bonds surged yesterday on a busy weekend from the Fed with a weekend cut to the Discount Rate and facilitation of the Bear Stearns bailout. Bonds have given back some of these gains today and we’ve seen…you guessed it…volatility.
Stock
Continue Reading →Is a Fed Rate Cut good for your mortgage rate? The facts can be surprising.
The Fed only controls a few, yet extremely powerful, instruments. Of note, we’ve seen recent use of the Discount Rate just this past weekend and we fully expect a cut to the Fed Funds Rate today.
These are [...]
Continue Reading →Wow. A weekend meeting by our friends at the Fed reduced the Discount Rate by .25%. The Discount and Fed Funds Rate are normally about 1% apart. Currently, they are just .25% apart.
Bear Stearns stumbles off of 52-week highs near $160 and February highs in the $90′s to become part of JP Morgan [...]
Continue Reading →More credit changes are hitting the Jumbo Mortgage market. A quick look at comparisons for a few Jumbo loan scenarios:
10% Down up to $650,000 loan amount: Prior to March 17th – 620 FICO scoreAfter March 17th – 700 FICO score
30% Down between $650,001 and $1,000,000: Prior to March 17th – 620 FICO [...]
Continue Reading →The markets have been crazy, but we’ve reached a new level of volatility today. Mortgage rates have moved significantly lower on a very strong opening mortgage rates are now moving higher.
Bear Stearns required actions from the NY Fed and JP Morgan Chase that may have prevented them from going out of business. Fed [...]
Continue Reading →When mortgages began to sour last Fall, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac instituted "loan-level pricing adjustments".
The concept is basic: For mortgage applicants with less-than-ideal credit profiles, mortgage pricing is adjusted to compensate for the added risks.
It's still a conforming loan, but with adjustments.
Effective March 6, though, Fannie and Freddie's definition [...]
Continue Reading →Carlyle Capital moved the markets early today by announcing that they are unable to meet a $400 million margin call. The dollar fell below 100 yen earlier today for the first time in 10 years. Gold soars to $1,000 per ounce. Do you want me to stop?
This is some pretty choppy news again and [...]
Continue Reading →The Unemployment Rate fell to 4.8 percent in February.
This is 0.1% lower than from January and that's confusing to a lot of people; it's been highly publicized that U.S. companies shed 63,000 jobs last month.
Americans are losing jobs at the same time that the Unemployment Rate is falling. Seem strange?
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