December 17th, 2007
Rates Bump Up!
Freddie Mac reports that 30-year fixed mortgages averaged 6.11 percent on Friday, an increase from the week-ago rate of 5.96 percent.
Until this past week, interest on 30-year loans had either been holding steady or declining each week since mid-October. The increase to 6.11 percent prompted Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft to remark:
“The housing segment of the economy still has a way to go before bottoming out.”
Rates on 15-year fixed mortgages, meanwhile, climbed to 5.78 percent from 5.65 percent a week earlier; while five-year adjustable-rate mortgages jumped to 5.89 percent from 5.75 percent, and one-year ARMs bumped up to 5.50 percent from 5.46 percent.
[SOURCES: Freddie Mac; Information, Inc.]
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August 6th, 2007
Mortgage Problems Worsen, which directly affects the real estate market.
There are conflicting real estate and mortgage stories, some good and some bad. Hopefully this is a sign that the “bottom” has occurred and we are on are way up again.
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Lenders are responding to turmoil in the subprime mortgage market by imposing stricter underwriting standards, and experts say they are doing so at such a rapid pace that it is difficult to keep track of available mortgage products and their interest rates.
Experts note that tighter underwriting criteria could further depress the housing market, as borrowers without down payments, steady incomes, and good credit find themselves unable to obtain financing.
Borrowers looking to refinance out of adjustable-rate mortgages will be unable to do so; and the hard-luck cycle will continue as the inventory of homes on the market swells as these homeowners lose their properties to foreclosure, putting a damper on residential values, eliminating equity that could have been used to keep borrowers afloat, and further adding to supply as even more consumers unable to refinance end up in foreclosure.
Goldman Sachs chief U.S. economist Jan Hatzius says up-wards of 15 percent of borrowers eligible for mortgages last year no longer qualify.
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August 6th, 2007
Rates Drop Again, SlightlyFreddie Mac reported a modest decline in mortgage rates during the week ended Aug. 2, with the 30-year fixed rate falling to a one-month low of 6.68 percent from 6.69 percent. Interest on 15-year fixed loans, meanwhile, dropped to 6.32 percent from 6.37 percent.
The five-year adjustable mortgage rate slipped to 6.29 percent from 6.30 percent, and the one-year ARM slid to 5.59 percent from 5.69 percent. Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft attributes the decrease in borrowing costs to an increase in investors snapping up Treasury securities as they move away from mortgage-backed bonds.
[SOURCES: Freddie Mac; Information, Inc.]
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July 16th, 2007
Rates Rise After Three Weeks of Decline
Freddie Mac reported an increase in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to 6.73 percent on Friday from 6.63 percent a week earlier, with chief economist Frank Nothaft expecting the benchmark to remain at or near this level for the remainder of the year. The 15-year mortgage rate edged up to 6.39 percent from 6.3 percent over the same time span, and the five-year adjustable mortgage rate climbed to 6.35 percent from 6.29 percent. Meanwhile, interest on one-year ARMs held steady at 5.71 percent. Nothaft attributes the jump in borrowing costs to a positive June jobs report and a jump in consumer credit in May.
SOURCES: Freddie Mac; Wall Street Journal
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June 11th, 2007
At the end of the TREC meeting on Wednesday, Adren Greene, said good-by to his follow commissioners as his second term came to an end. Having served two back to back 5 year terms on the TREC, Adren cannot be reappointed.
He commented on the pleasure of serving, and also noted that during his 10 years of service, meeting twice a month and commuting from Morristown to Nashville, he had spent the equivalent of a year in time serving the TREC. I suspect that in reality, Adren gave us much more than that and I for one am very appreciative.
Adren will still be busy as an established force in East Tennessee real estate he remains a real estate entrepreneur. Adren formed Coldwell Banker Realty House in Morristown many years ago. Today the company has over 30 real estate professionals The company has hundreds of transactions a year that total several millions in sales.
We wish Commissioner Green well, and thank you for your service.
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May 5th, 2007
Nationwide, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.16%, for the week ending May 3rd, unchanged from last week’s 6.16%. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.59%. The average for the 15-year FRM this week is 5.87%, unchanged from last week’s 5.87%. One-year “T”ARMs were down at 5.42% and five-year “T”ARMs averaged 5.87% down from last week’s 5.88%.
“The recently advanced report of first quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was weaker than expected, growing only 1.3 percent. The housing market alone shaved a full percentage point off real GDP growth,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Additionally, both consumer spending and price increases in consumer expenditures were quite tame in March. These contributing factors allowed mortgage rates to hold steady this week. Interestingly, the refinance share of mortgage applications has been on a downward trend from a recent peak of nearly 53 percent in December, 2006 to around 42 percent last week. But a majority of refinancing involved homeowners extracting equity from their homes. Given that rates on home equity loans are currently around 8.25 percent, homeowners have a big incentive to use cash-out refinancing as an alternative source of financing.”
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