Weekly Interest Rate Report

Weekly Mortgage Interest Rate Report  —  February 27, 2014

Tom Drasler CA Licensed Mortgage Advisor - CA BRE#01775516, NMLS#297791 Direct (714) 478-3153 Send me an email     |   Visit my website HomeQuest Mortgage Corporation 25283 Cabot Road, Suite 108 - Laguna Hills, CA 92653

Data Provided by Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey®  Week ending on 02/27/14 Interest Rate Fees & Points Margin  30 Year Fixed Rate 4.37% 0.7 N/A  15 Year Fixed Rate 3.39% 0.7 N/A  5/1-Year Adjustable Rate 3.05% 0.5 2.74  1 Year Adjustable Rate 2.52% 0.4 2.71 For up-to-the-minute local mortgage interest rate information, contact:  Tom Drasler at Direct (714) 478-3153  Week ending on 02/20/14 Interest Rate Fees & Points Margin  30 Year Fixed Rate 4.33% 0.7 N/A  15 Year Fixed Rate 3.35% 0.7 N/A  5/1-Year Adjustable Rate 3.08% 0.5 2.74  1 Year Adjustable Rate 2.57% 0.3 2.71 This is not intended as an advertisement of interest rates as defined by Regulation Z, Section 226.24. Data is provided by Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) and is provided for informational purposes only. The financial and other information contained herein speaks only as of the date posted herein. Freddie Mac, and/or the sender of this information, is not responsible for business decisions made based on the reported results of the PMMS. In general, the data presented were calculated from information collected Monday through Wednesday of the same week that the PMMS is released and may not reflect mortgage rates, fees or points currently available. Average fees and points are provided to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining a mortgage. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey. Weekly Commentary by Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac "Mortgage rates edged up with new home sales exceeding expectations and rising to a seasonally adjusted pace of 468,000 units in January, the strongest annual rate since July 2008. The 9.6 percent increase in new home sales for January followed an upward revision of 13,000 units in December. The S&P/Case-Shiller® 20-city composite house price index rose 13.4 percent over the 12-months ending in December 2013."

CHASE ANNOUNCES BIG LAYOFFS - WHAT BIG BANKS WILL FOLLOW?

I believe there has been a resurgence of realtors utilizing the services of  traditionally more service oriented and experienced mortgage brokers. For one, mortgage brokers offer more lender options; they are licensed by the BRE, and are required to pass stringent state and federal exams as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act. Retail banks such as Chase, do not require their LO’s to have these credentials.  

JPMorgan Chase announced that a couple thousand positions would be eliminated, changed, restructured, whatever term you'd like to use. Rumors are large numbers of LOs leaving the bank for several weeks now - perhaps they saw the writing on the wall: 2000? Or is it 5,000? Or 6000? Or 8,000? Who can keep track! Seriously, many attribute these activities to new Qualified Mortgage (QM) guidelines effective this Jan. 10th from the Dodd-Frank CFPB. ("JPMorgan Chase is scaling back its mortgage products as the market cools. The company plans to eliminate 22 of its 37 mortgage products and programs by the end of 2014, according to a Tuesday presentation to investors. It has already jettisoned 12 and plans to get rid of 10 more by the end of the year.") And thus the consumer loses 60% of the available mortgage programs at Chase. And should we assume some of those 15 programs left are Private Banking? In that case, most consumers do not have $1 million in cash in JPM, so the damage could be even worse. One wonders when the other big guys will follow suit

Don't Get Excited by Jump in New Home Sales

There has been quite a bit of chatter about the recent rise in new home sales. If you dig down into the numbers and prior year chart comparisons, you might be surprised to see it may not be time to go out and buy a bunch of builder stocks.

Don’t Get Excited by Jump in New Home Sales

Wall Street Journal, February 26^th, 2014

New home sales jumped to the highest level since July 2008 in January, which is really good news if it holds. But the Census new-home sales data is a choppy indicator with a small sample size, and when you take a longer look at the series it’s pretty clear that the nation’s two-year-old real estate turnaround is still largely a recovery in prices.

The building of new homes — the housing sector’s biggest contribution to annual economic growth — continues to lag badly. This disconnect goes a long way toward explaining why U.S. growth is still pretty weak some four years after the recession. It’s also why economists’ hopes that 2014 will finally be a breakout year for the economy depend on home building regaining its footing in the spring. 

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/02/26/dont-get-excited-by-jump-in-new-home-sales/?mod=wsj_valettop_email

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Buying a Home versus Paying Rent - a financial benefit analysis

Why Pay over $2700 in rent when you could enjoy the benefits on home ownership. See how you can purchase a $600,000 with special low down payment programs and actually pay much less than rent. Click on the following link for a free illustration on the financial benefits.http://mcedge.tv/16i61d

Is Housing Really Unaffordable Today?

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WSJ Blogs - Is U.S. Housing Unaffordable? It Depends on How You Chart It - Developments

The Benefits of Owning Vs. Renting - a financial perspective

Look at the benefits of home ownership versus renting. I put together an analysis illustrating the financial benefits of buying a $600,000 home versus throwing away your money on renting a similar property for $2750 per month. Go to this linkhttp://mcedge.tv/16i61d