Archives

Bankrate.com Mortgage Trend Index (January 31, 2008)

With Another Rate Cut, The Federal Reserve May Be The Proverbial "Fool In The Shower"

Consumer Confidence Doesn't Say Much, But We Have To Pay Attention Regardless

The Mainstream Media Is Building Mortgage Market Awareness (And That's A Good Thing)

It was a busy week for economists, policymakers, consumers and mortgage professionals.
We had a surprise .75% rate cut from the Fed.
We had the announcement of an economic stimulus package that included not only significant tax rebates, but a temporary increase in the conforming loan limits from $417,000 to $729,750 (a huge, huge win for Californians).
We [...]

The swing in mortgage rates over the last week has been astronomical. Some mortgage products popped higher by one-half-percent Wednesday afternoon. You can exactly when it happened on the chart. And those losses continued through to Thursday, too. As money...

I am a regular participant in the Bankrate.com Mortgage Rate Trend survey and this week's survey is now available. Note: the survey only covers conforming loans. If you are a jumbo, Alt-A, or sub-prime mortgage holder, the survey is not...

In a surprise move yesterday, the Federal Reserve cut the benchmark Fed Funds Rate by three-quarters of a percent. Mortgage rates fell only slightly as the surprise quickly wore off. To understand how the element of surprise works in mortgage...

It’s amazing how quickly fear of inflation can be replaced by fear of recession.
In a surprise move, the FOMC lowered the Federal Funds Rate by .75%. That this happened before the FOMC’s regularly scheduled end-of-January meeting, combined with the size of the cut and the willingness to aggressively cut further, indicates how precarious the Fed [...]

All mortgage approvals are loosely based on what I call the Income-Equity-Credit Triangle. The stronger the elements of the triangle, the more likely a person will qualify for a conforming (or "prime") mortgage. The triangle's three corners are defined as...