Mortgage applications rose last week driven by refinancing. The overall gain over the prior week was 4.9 percent with 1 percent gain from purchase applications and 5.7 percent gain in refinance.
Rates on adjustable rate mortgages remained flat this week while 15 year and 30 year fixed rate mortgages fell. 15 year fixed rate mortgages fell to 3.86 percent.
Resource: REALTOR®Mag & FreddieMac.com
Andrew Gledhill, economist with Moody’s has identified 22 cities most susceptible to a worsening economy. At first, one would expect to see cities in Arizona, California and Nevada on the list. Cities in those states generate the gloomiest news. But not so.
The biggest risk is in manufacturing. A community with an industrial economy stands to fall the most. The cities are;
- Missoula, Mont.
- Salem, Ore.
- Idaho Falls, Idaho
- Lake County-Kenosha County, Ill.-Wisc.
- Lafayette, Ind.
- Wichita, Kan.
- Hot Springs, Ark.
- Pine Bluff, Ark.
- Little Rock, Ark.
- Wichita Falls, Texas
- Akron, Ohio
- Charleston, W.Va.
- Macon, Ga.
- Gadsden, Ala.
- Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss.
- Mobile, Ala.
- Utica-Rome, N.Y.
- Lebanon, Pa.
- Springfield, Ohio
- Wilmington, N.C.
- Anderson, S.C.
- Athens-Clark County Ga.
Rates on adjustable rate mortgages remained flat this week while 15 year and 30 year fixed rate mortgages fell 0.02 points. Even with the low rates, mortgage applications fell 3.4 percent the prior week.
Resource: REALTOR®Mag & FreddieMac.com
At the height of the lending frenzy in Arizona prior to the “crash,” there were 10,000 unlicensed loan officers handling borrower confidential financial information and arranging loans. Some of the loans were just risky while other were downright fraudulent.
In 2008 the Arizona legislature passed a law requiring all loan officers to be licensed along with fingerprinting and background checks. The law went into effect July 1 of this year.
So far over 4300 applications were submitted for licensing with a little over 2400 approved. Approximately 1000 applications are on hold pending more information or further checking.
Hopefully the licensing process will weed out unscrupulous loan officers and make those who commit fraud easier to identify and catch.
There is a lot more to the law than simply licensing. You can read the entire
Arizona Republic article by clicking
here.
Rates fell slightly flat last week. For example, 30 year fixed fell 0.02 point to 4.54 percent while 15 year fixed fell 0.03 point to 4.00 percent.
Comments Off
Congress has finally passed a bill restoring and funding the Rural Housing Service, the provider of USDA loans. The bill now goes to President Obama for signature.
USDA has been issuing conditional loan approvals while waiting for bill passage.
The timing of this passage is important for there are buyers in escrow with conditional loan approval who want to close by September 30 so they can benefit from the first time home buyer tax credit.
USDA will issue new mortgage guidelines shortly.
Comments Off
On July 19 we published a post “
Applying For A Loan? Pregnancy Is Out!” in which it is reported that lenders are denying loans because a working mother who is pregnant will have reduced earnings.
This seems like a raw deal and possible discrimination.
HUD has opened an investigation into these practices. You can read their announcement
here.
Resource: HUD
Comments Off
Rates remained essentially flat last week. For example, 30 year fixed fell 0.01 point while 15 year fixed fell 0.03 points.
Comments Off
