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If you’ve been floating your loan or have yet to apply for a refinance because it just didn’t seem worth the hassle- congratulations! Mortgage rates hit new lows today and it’s now worth the hassle! If you’ve refinanced in the last 20 months, there is a darn good chance your refinance option is back in the money again!

The best 30 year fixed mortgage rates have fallen into the 4.125% to 4.375% range for well-qualified consumers. Some lenders will even go as low as 3.875% if the borrower is willing to pay points. Although the 4.125% quote isn’t being offered by the large retail banks, the smaller mortgage bankers and independent brokers do have access to loan pricing that will allow them to offer new rate lows.
Wednesday was not so great…

After weeks of stagnation, stocks finally took their turn in the spotlight today. As money moved out of the bond market and into equities, mortgage-backed security prices fell and lenders were forced to reprice for the worse. Consequently, consumer borrowing costs are higher than they were yesterday afternoon. The damage was not terribly dramatic though…

The best 30 year fixed mortgage rates are still in the 4.125% to 4.375% range for well-qualified consumers, but fewer lenders are offering rates below 4.25% today. If your lender is still willing to offer a rate below 4.25%, your closing costs are about 25bps higher today (0.25% of your loan amount). Actually, borrowing costs are about 25 basis points higher across the board.

While a better than expected read on the manufacturing sector has been cited as the stock market’s prime motivation and the bond market’s sole source of weakness, we think other factors were at work.

Call it exhaustion, blame it on boredom, but it is a new month and market participants took advantage of an opportunity to try something different. The bond market rallied all summer and has been viewed as “overbought” by many investors for the last two weeks. Unfortunately, weak economic data has prevented the bond market from correcting itself. Better than expected manufacturing data, a sector the market views as weak, gave investors the chance to let that correction take place today.

We’re not panicking over this sell off. There has been no change in our fundamental economic outlook, we see no new reason to be optimistic about a rapid recovery. What we witnessed today was a technical adjustment, an adjustment that could reverse course on Friday morning if the Employment Situation Report fails to match economist expectations. It also an adjustment that could be built on if the employment report meets or surpasses forecasts. Either way, the market remains non-committal and fluctuations are expected to occur within a range. The overall outlook remains highly supportive of low mortgage rates.

Now that doesn’t mean we’re all aboard the float boat though. If you’ve been offered a rate at or below 4.25% and can still execute it, we think you should cash in your chips and lock your loan. If you’ve lost this quote and are back to square one, we think you can afford to float as long as you’re not on a deadline. Your borrowing costs might rise a few basis points in the near term, but we think you’ll have another opportunity to lock in at today’s pricing, and potentially yesterday’s pricing, sometime in the next month.

Remember this advice. This is extremely important!

The “best executed” lock/float strategy comes down to finding an originator who knows the loan market, studies underwriting guidelines, and just plain old gets the J.O.B done. You have to let the loan officer earn their commission. That’s how you “ride the float boat” in this environment…make sure you have a damn good skipper. Plain and Simple.

Information courtesy of:
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/consumer_rates/170001.aspx

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Falafel
Cook time: 20 Minutes
Yield: 24 Falafels

• 2 cups dried chickpeas, picked through and rinsed
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 small onion, grated
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted and ground
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 handfuls fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves coarsely chopped
• 1 handful fresh cilantro, leaves coarsely chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• 8 warm pita bread, store bought or homemade recipe follows
• Tahini Sauce , recipe follows
• Shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, chopped cucumbers

Directions:
Put the dried chickpeas in a large bowl and add cool water to cover by 2 inches. Soak the beans in the refrigerator for at least 18 hours or up to 24; the chickpeas will swell to triple their original size. Drain and rinse thoroughly.

Put the soaked chickpeas in a food processor and pulse to coarsely grind, not until smooth but with no whole chickpeas remaining either. Add the baking powder, onion, garlic, spices, and herbs; process until the mixture is pureed; scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate while heating the oil, this should take about 15 minutes.

Pour 3-inches of the oil in a deep fryer or deep heavy pot and heat to 375 degrees F.

Roll the falafel mixture into ping-pong size balls. (Alternatively, use an ice cream scoop.) Carefully slip a few at a time into the hot oil, making sure they don’t stick to the bottom. Fry until the chickpea fritters are a crusty dark brown on all sides, turning as needed, about 5 minutes per batch. Remove the falafels with a slotted spoon and drain on a platter lined with paper towels.

Open the pita bread halves to make pockets (don’t split all the way) and put 4 fried falafels into each. Drizzle with the tahini sauce and layer with lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Serve immediately.

Tahini Sauce:
1/2 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/2 cup plain yogurt or water
1 lemon, juiced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
Pinch salt
Pinch paprika

Combine all the ingredients in a blender, process on high speed to make a smooth and creamy sauce. Adjust seasoning, to taste, and serve with falafels or as a salad dressing.

Yield: about 1 cup

Here is a quick explanation and breakdown of the changes happening to FHA residential mortgages on Oct. 4th. Basically, It’s going to get more expensive. This is only the first of more increases we will see through 2011. If you or someone you know is looking for more information feel free to contact me and my team. If you are a real estate agent, it’s a great idea to forward this video to prospects on the fence. You need to have a HUD assigned case # for your property by Oct 3rd.

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There is good news about Americans and their debt in a quarterly report issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Consumer Credit Panel; keeping in mind, of course, that everything is relative. For example, aggregate consumer debt and household delinquency rates, while still in abysmal territory, both declined during the second quarter of 2010.

The report uses detailed Equifax credit report data to construct a longitudinal quarterly panel of individuals and households covering the period 1999 to 2009. The panel is a nationally representative 5 percent sample of individuals with social security numbers and an Equifax credit history. The survey includes all individuals sharing the panel members’ address, allowing the survey designers to construct household-level debt for a representative sample of US households. The database that results from the survey’s design includes approximately 40 million individuals each quarter. To reduce costs, a further 2 percent sample is taken for analysis resulting in a final sample of 240,000 individuals.

The study distinguishes debt across the following types of accounts: mortgage accounts (including home equity installment loans (HEL)), home equity revolving accounts (HELOCs), auto loans, credit cards, student loans, and other loan accounts including consumer finance, retail stores and gas station accounts.

As of June 30, American consumers owed $11.7 trillion, down 1.5 percent from the previous quarter and 6.5 percent below the peak level for consumer debt ($12.5 trillion) at the end of the third quarter of 2008. This downward trend has now continued for seven quarters.

Mortgage indebtedness has declined 6.4 percent since its peak, also in Q3 of 2008. HELOCs were down 4.4 percent since peaking in late 2008 and early 2009. Consumer indebtedness exclusive of mortgage and HELOC accounts was down 1.5 percent from the previous quarter and now totals $2.31 trillion, a decrease of 8.4 percent from the 2008Q3 peak.

Information Courtesy of – http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/08182010_consumer_debt_federal_reserve.asp

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