Did you know that FHA is raising the Mortgage Insurance Premium, MIP, on all loans filed after October 4th, 2010?
FHA will raise the MIP on all FHA case numbers assigned on or after October 4th. This is a value added proposition for any one out there that is on the fence about buying a house. The monthly MIP is going from .52 to .90. This means a customers payment will be around $67.00 per month more on a $200,000 FHA loan after Oct. 4th.
If you want more information I have the mortgagee letter from HUD with all of the MIP changes, just email me or call me and I can send it to you!
myerst@kw.com or 405.474.4242
Rates as of yesterday on a 30 year fixed were 4.250% and a 5/1 fixed arm was 2.875%.
Mortgage bonds traded yesterday afternoon at an all time low yield. Below is 2-year history, which covers the current refinance cycle which started in late November, 2008. Let me know if you want to go shopping for a home!?! These rates enable you to buy a bigger/more expensive home at a lower price! 
| We are back to the mortgage roller coaster as VERY weak housing sales numbers came out pushing rates back down against the floor that we have been unable to break through. Then, better than expected Gross Domestic Product numbers, and the Fed’s comments indicating they are not going to support lower mortgage rates through further purchases, caused rates to spike back up again, albeit still in the low 4’s. There are many other factors that are whirling around as well to impact rates: The sock market, Greece – AGAIN, strong German GDP, etc. Any way you look at it, it’s NOT dull. Suffice it to say, we are still at a floor and there appears to be only one way for rates to go: UP. So, by waiting, your clients might get lucky and rates will stay low. But one thing is becoming increasing clear through the repetition of patterns: Rates are NOT going lower.
FYI, the low housing numbers were the logical let-down from the stimulus-induced highs earlier this year. So don’t let this panic you. Housing numbers will stabilize in the next two months at non-stimulus levels and then continue to improve.
State Bond Money still available with a rate of 5.25% and 3.5% DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE!!!
This week 30 yr. fixed rates remained in the low 4’s depending on program, credit and points. |
| Ted Clay Sr. Loan Officer NMLSR # 217991 OK License # MLO01963 Office: 405-341-8644 |
Here are just a few places that I know or think might be fun places to visit while in Oklahoma or even if you have lived here for years. We all might as well enjoy what we have!
- The Oklahoma City Zoo, http://www.okczoo.com/
- The Gilcrease Musuem in Tulsa, OK – #918-596-2700, http://gilcrease.utulsa.edu/
- The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Musuem in Oklahoma City, OK – http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/
- Arbuckle Wilderness in Davis, OK – #580-369-3383
- Omniplex/Science Musuem of Oklahoma – http://www.omniplex.org/
- Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refugee, Visitor center, and park – http://www.fws.gov/southwest/REFUGES/oklahoma/wichitamountains/visitorcenter.html
- Beacon Drive-In Theater in Guthrie, OK – #405-282-3133, http://www.beacondrive-in.com/
- Oklahoma Aquarium, http://www.okaquarium.org/
- POPS restaurant, gas station and gift shop in Arcadia, OK #405-928-7677
- Discoveryland in Sand Springs, OK – www.discoverylandusa.com
- Turner Falls in Davs, OK #580-369-2988, http://www.turnerfallspark.com/
There are tons more places to visit and play in Oklahoma. Just get out there and start exploring. Make an adventure out of it. Oklahoma really is a great place to live!
The Quote Garden has a number of back to school quotes. Here are a couple of quotes that I thought
were either funny or completely true. I believe we all can relate or agree to at least one of these
quotes!
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The
great teacher inspires. ~William Arthur Ward
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. ~Henry Brooks Adams
Learn as much as you can while you are young, since life becomes too busy later. ~Dana Stewart
Scott
I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. ~Winston Churchill
The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we
continue to live. ~Mortimer Adler
Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem.
That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.
~Thomas Szasz
When the student is ready, the master appears. ~Buddhist Proverb
You learn something every day if you pay attention. ~Ray LeBlond
The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr. ~Mohammed
Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. ~Chinese Proverb
Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know. ~Daniel J. Boorstin, Democracy
and Its Discontents
Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. ~Abbé Dimnet,
Art of Thinking, 1928
Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave
school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong
desire to know it. ~William Haley
Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption
of homework formerly eaten by the dog. ~Doug Larson
Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. ~Malcolm S. Forbes
You can get all A’s and still flunk life. ~Walker Percy
There are three good reasons to be a teacher – June, July, and August. ~Author Unknown
As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools. ~Author Unknown
The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~Sydney J. Harris
If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums
would be filled with mothers. ~Edgar W. Howe
Being a child at home alone in the summer is a high-risk occupation. If you call your mother at
work thirteen times an hour, she can hurt you. ~Erma Bombeck
Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It
would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken. ~Bill Dodds
Go to www.quotegarden.com to see more.
| A week jobs report and a less than glowing leading indicator report from the Philadelphia Fed continues to underscore the weakness in our economy. Also, state and local governments project more job losses as they firm up budgets for the coming year. In the slow month of August, nothing is surfacing to tell us that things are getting better and THAT puts the spotlight squarely on the negative news.
The impact on rates is that for the THIRD time this month we are back at all time low levels. BUT…each time we get there, rates go back up. If you’ve noticed, the rate range has remained unchanged for 4 straight weeks. This tells me that investors have a minimum rate of return they require on mortgages and each time we get there, they are unwilling to take a lower rate.
It’s not going to get any better than NOW to buy…or refinance. Speaking of refinancing, if you’ve bought a home in the past, this may be the time to refinance. Take advantage before this awesome chance passes.
This week 30 yr. fixed rates remained between 4.25% and 4.5% depending on program, credit and points. |
| Ted Clay Sr. Loan Officer NMLSR # 217991 OK License # MLO01963 Office: 405-341-8644 |
These are just a few things I thought I would share with you after going to a couple “Unpacking your Boxes” classes at Memorial Road Church of Church these past couple weeks. Let me know if you would like to go to the last two classes or want more information. Email me at myerst@kw.com.
- Always make the move an adventure – think of it as a new opportunity and somewhere adventurous to start this new chapter in your life
- There will be melt downs, no matter what, it takes time to get use to a totally different city and home
- Stay positive because the positive and negative things you say to your kids and friends will rub off on them. Plus, who wants to be around a person who is negative all of the time if the only things you talk about are negative. You need your old and new friends in this phase of your life.
- Embrace the beauty of the Edmond/Oklahoma City area if this is your home now. Find different, exciting places to eat and go for entertainment. (look for a blog post coming soon on fun places to visit in OKC )
- Turn to God, a friend or church family for support. They will help lead you in the right direction.
Hope these tips are helpful! I sure thought they were good.
| This week the BUZZ is all about ‘deflation’: Will it come? What will happen? While the directors at the Fed agree that the economy will remain week for a while, they are split on the deflation issue. This week, the core CPI came in positive but just barely, underscoring why there’s disagreement. So, what does this mean for rates? (This message will be longer than usual, but worth it.)
View rates like a set of stairs. In lending money, the more risk you take (horizontally), the higher rate of return you want (vertically). Risk comes in how soon you’ll be paid back and who you lend to. The longer you wait to get your money back, the more risk you take and you want a higher interest rate. So, a 10 note pays a higher rate than a 1 year. Also, the risker the creditor, the higher rate of return you demand. So a mortgage to you and me requires a higher rate than Uncle Sam’s T-bills. Following so far? Back to the stairs. Each step represents a different level of risk, either time lent or borrower lent to. 1 yr. T-bills are at the bottom, 10’s in the middle, and 30 yr. mortgages are at the top. Well, the 1 year T-Bills are basically at 0..so they can’t go any lower. And if THEY can’t go any lower, can any of the other steps on the interest-rate-stair-case (i.e. mortgages) go any lower? Not really. The only way for mortgages (the top steps) to drift lower would be for the size of the steps to shrink – i.e. investors would have to be willing to take less return for their added risk. This might happen to some degree, but not much. But what IF, investors WERE willing to take less for their added risk and those steps DID shrink thereby lowering rates further? Well, a funny thing happens to a monthly payment when rates are this low. The difference between a 4.0% payment and a 4.25% payment is less than the difference between a 5% and 5.25%. My point? IF rates DID drift lower, which in my opinion is not likely, it wouldn’t impact your borrower as much as it did when rates were in the 5’s. So, if you are asking, “Shouldn’t I wait for rates to go lower?” “Absolutely NOT!”.
This week 30 yr. fixed rates remained between 4.25% and 4.5% depending on program, credit and points (notice how we’ve been here for 4 weeks?). |
| Ted Clay Sr. Loan Officer NMLSR # 217991 OK License # MLO01963 Office: 405-341-8644 |