Here’s whats cued up for today:
- any moment Treasury Secretary Geithner will unveil his plan on what to do with the remaining TARP funds.
- 9:00am PST the Senate is scheduled to vote on the latest stimulus package.
- 10:00am PST Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be speaking to the House Financial Services Committee.
- 10:00 am PST the Treasury will action $32B in 3-year Notes.
Currently rates are slightly improved from yesterday. If you’re trying to “catch” a low rate, be sure to have your application in with a mortgage professional (they can hold off on ordering title, escrow and appraisal until you lock). Be prepared to let them run your credit–it’s needed in order to property lock and price your mortgage.
And what ever you do–do not have double applications or locks with more than one mortgage professional. I’ll write more on this later…it puts mortgage companies in great risk of losing their relationships with lenders due to lock fallout….which in this market, can make or break it for some.
About Rhonda Porter
The DOW is down about 300 points right now following Geithner’s presentation.
So much has been written about the bank rescue plan that all the positive benefits have already been factored into stock prices. Unfortunately, this latest bailout attempt most likely won’t do any better than the ones that came before it. Policy makers are just trying to catch a falling knife. Just as we have seen that struggling home-owners who arrange loan work-outs with their lenders have extremely high risks of defaulting yet again, it is highly unlikely that the zombie financial institutions the government is helping today will become healthy once again simply because the government is back-stopping some of their toxic assets.
In any event, we will likely continue to see a lot of volatility in mortgage rates over the coming months (the first great depression saw some of the greatest month-to-month, and year-to-year, volatility in asset prices that have ever been witnessed, and this depression is already proving to be similar), but I still wouldn’t at all be surprised to see mortgage rates reach even deeper lows than we have seen in recent years. The dollar (and t-bills) are likely to become even more popular refuges from the economic downturn, driving yields to never before seen lows.
Sniglet, I’ll be surprised to mortgage rates hit “deeper lows”…and the lower rates have been going to those who are “highly qualified” with 740 or better credit scores and 60% or lower loan to value.
The promise of lower rates and more info from Geithner’s speech this morning will drag this out further with no guarantee of lower rates unless the Gov is directly issuing the mortgage…guess they might as well!
No surpise–the stimulus bill has passed 61-37. President Obama is anticipated to sign this by this weekend.
Rates are not moving at all so far despite the improvement in the Bond market. Only one of our wholesalers improved very slightly. The rest seem to be staying put. Is everyone just holding their breath?
Cathy R., I was expecting more in price improvements too… there is no way to truly predict rates or market movement these days…but the day is not over….just ask Geithner who’s now in front of Senate Banking Committee.
So far, one lender that I work with has provided 3 rate sheets for today…all with slight improvements–around 0.125% to rate than what I quoted this morning.
I may post rates at Rain City Guide tomorrow since I’ll be at Seattle Real Estate Bar Camp on Friday….
A friend of mine asked me about this, since he is planning on buying a home soon. Rhonda, you make a good point about the government giving out loans…they are almost there already.
Charles, what advice did you give your friend?