Daily Archives: June 11, 2014

Zillow: 30-year mortgage rates remain stable | Waccabuc Real Estate

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages rose ever so slightly from last week’s figures, according to Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace. Current rate borrowers were quoted interest rates of 4.04% on Zillow (Z) this week, up only three basis points from last week’s rate of 4.01%.

Zillow’s mortgage rate report is based on Zillow clients, and is not as comprehensive as the weekly rate report from Freddie Mac, but it is a good measure of what prospective buyers are seeing in the market.

According to Zillow’s data, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate peaked at 4.12% on Thursday before dropping to 4.03% on Friday, where rates remained for the rest of the week.

“Mortgage rates were flat last week as two highly anticipated announcements, the European Central Bank’s stimulus plan and the latest U.S. employment report, confirmed the outcomes the markets were expecting,” said Erin Lantz, vice president of mortgages at Zillow. “Next week there is a limited number of market-moving news or events scheduled, so we expect rates to remain stable.”

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Zillow: 30-year mortgage rates remain stable

Tapering won’t end this year and housing is not recovering | Bedford Hills Real Estate

Billionaire Investor Sam Zell says he doesn’t believe the Federal Reserve will be done tapering quantitative easing by the October, as most on the Fed and most observers seem to think.

“I just do not know whether the Fed has the guts to really complete the taper,” said Tuesday on FOX Business Network’s Opening Bell with Maria Bartiromo. “I’m worried about whether I’m young enough to be around when QE3 ends.”

In a wide-ranging interview Zell talked about the Federal Reserve, the stock market and growth sectors in the economy.

“I think the stock market is over exuberant” and “I think that the stock market reflects the fact that there’s very little other options” for investors.

“I think that, first of all, I am skeptical about, ‘the tapering process,’” Zell said. “I am encouraging by Stanley Fischer’s presence, who I think is a terrific, terrific addition to the Fed. But I do not think that the Fed will be able to end tapering as quickly as they thought.

“And I think the potential for inflation in a QE2 environment like this is very high,” Zell continued. “And as far as interest rates are concerned, it is pretty easy to say they are going up when they’re at zero today. But it is hard for me to imagine that you are going to have a scenario like this without it having a very negative impact on our country.”

Zell also talked about real estate and housing.

“I think that the single family market is, I don’t know, benign would be a good way to describe it. The traffic is relatively slow, certainly at the first homebuyer level,” he said on FBN. “As a matter of fact, most of the traffic between the top and between the very top and down is down.”

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/30275-sam-zell-tapering-wont-end-this-year-and-housing-is-not-recovering

Refinance share continues to grow | Bedford NY Real Estate

After weeks of steady declines and levels well below originations the same time last year, mortgage applications jumped a surprising 10.3% from one week earlier, according to data for the week ending June 6 from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The previous week’s results included an adjustment for the Memorial Day holiday.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 10.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 11% from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 9% from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 19% compared with the previous week and was 13% lower than the same week one year ago.

“The jump in applications shows folks are taking notice of rates near six-month lows,” said Quicken Loans vice president Bill Banfield. “The jump in purchase applications is especially good to see, as homeowners may finally be getting comfortable putting their home on the market with the level of inventory they see around them.”

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 54% of total applications from 53% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity remained unchanged at 8% of total applications.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) increased to 4.34% from 4.26%, with points increasing to 0.16 from 0.13 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/30280-mortgage-applications-unexpectedly-jump-10-for-week