Homeowners rush into fixed-rate mortgages

August 24th, 2006 • Finance, Loan Programs, Real Estate

Yesterday I wrote about interest rates for 30 year fixed mortgages dropping for four weeks in a row. Lo and behold the public has noticed:

U.S. homeowners continue to rush to refinance their mortgages, as interest rates have fallen back to a five-month low, data from the Mortgage Bankers Asssociation showed Wednesday.

The number of applications for mortgages filed at major U.S. banks rose 0.1% last week on the increase in refinancings, the industry group said.

It’s a modest gain to be sure but expect more gains as this is a lagging indicator. The yield on the ten year held steady today at 4.81 and all signs point to no big changes tomorrow. If Bernanke listens to the Asian markets, the trend may continue.

Mortgage Spam: You Might Be Surprised Who’s Behind It

August 23rd, 2006 • 2 comments Business, Finance

According to a recent articles fromCNET and Politech, one ISP has successfully fingered a handful of industry heavyweights:

White noticed that the spam flood had two things in common: It was being sent to many ASIS e-mail addresses that were no longer active, and it directed (she would later tell the judge) the recipient to connect to Web sites such as wwmort.com, bbmort.com and xxmort.com.

On Oct. 27, White filled out a form on one of the Web sites using the fictitious name of “Bruce Wolf.”

The next day, ASIS says, the company received this voice mail from Francis Prasad: “Hi, this message is for Bruce. Bruce, this is Francis calling from Aegis Lending Corporation (in) Sacramento. Bruce, actually, I am the loan officer who has been assigned to handle your financial request…”

A legal brief that ASIS submitted includes transcripts of calls to “Bruce” from Aegis Lending, American Home Equity, Quicken Loans, Stateside Mortgage, Northstart Financial and National Fidelity Funding.

While I hear Quicken Loans has a wholesale side now for brokers I have never used them. AHE and Aegis however are two of the more notable names in the industry. Aegis is a generally known as a sub prime lender (although they do have a prime division now) and American Home Equity is a full service lender but their niche is stand alone seconds behind neg am loans. As the market continues to slide we can expect to see more of the same from companies desperate to increase sales in a declining market for shareholders.

Interest rates dropping! Homeowners let out collective sigh

August 16th, 2006 • Finance, Real Estate

Everyone knows the stock market is in bull mode but one of the pieces of news getting lost in the shuffle is that this isn’t hurting the housing markets. Over the last month I’ve watched the yield on the ten year note drop from 5.13 to 4.87. Here was today’s activity:

What does this mean for interest rates? A drop from roughly 6.375% as a par rate to 5.875%.

This number doesnt exactly correlate to an APR as a lender will assess some points and fees and of course their are always closing costs which will increase the APR of the loan, but this is good news for people looking to purchase a home or refinance out of their existing ARM’s.