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Is Our Debt Causing More Wealth Inequality?
One of the wisest bond investors in the world for the last 40 years is Dr. Lacy Hunt, Executive Vice President, Hoisington Investment Management. He believes that interest rates will continue to drop as our country takes on more and more debt as this is what has happened in Japan and much of Europe. Here…
Home Price Still Soaring
Case Shiller the gold standard of home price appreciation revealed that homes prices have risen by 20% nationally. Here in Denver our prices rose by a new record high of 21.5% in the last 12 months. The FHFA House Price Index rose 18.5% from August 2020 to August 2021. This report is what directly impacts…
We Still Have Amazingly Low Rates
Everyone is concerned about rising mortgage rates, but I want to remind you that today’s mortgage rates today are still lower than anytime before Covid. Before Covid I remember the lowest rates I saw on conventional loans was 3.50% and currently they are at 3.25%, I remember a few years ago when VA rates dropped…
Great National Housing Data
Housing starts, when construction begins, declined 1.6% in September at an annualized pace of 1.55 million. Year over year starts are up 7.4%. · Single-family housing starts were 7.4% higher than last year at an annualized pace of 1.08 million. · Apartment starts saw a big decline. · Permits are a good forward indicator before…
The Death of the Starter Home
I read a story titled “The Death of the Starter Home: Where Have All the Small Houses Gone.” The author Elena Cox defined small homes as homes with less than 1850 square feet and in September there were only 300k of these small homes on the market according to Realtor.com. Here are some reasons on…
Is Housing Over-Supplied?
On October 15th Ivy Zelman whom I admire for her work in RE said that the home market is significantly over-supplied and this puzzled many other housing experts. One of them is Logan Mohtashami from Housing Wire, who asks how is this possible when inventory is at all-time lows? I agree. Ivy also said that…
We Can Close Conventional Loans Up to $625k
In light of how much home prices have appreciated in the last year we are now offering conventional loans up to $625k. Later this week FHFA will release their August Home Price Index and it will be interesting to see how much appreciation this report shows. The last report for the month of July showed…
The Biggest Risk to the Housing Market
Logan Mohtashami, one of my favorite economists writes for the Housing Wire every week. Here are some bullet points from his lengthy report- · More Americans are buying homes with a mortgage in 2020 and 2021 than any single year from 2008-2019. Why? Millions of Millennials are entering their 30’s their peak home buying years.…
How Can I Save Veterans Thousands of Dollars?
A Realtor called me recently to talk with me about our VA loans and she referred a client of hers to us and this client had just gone under contract on a $600k+ home. This veteran was pre-approved with one the BIG national VA lenders who advertise non-stop to veterans about how great they are…
Who Needs A Buyer’s Agent?
Redfin allows buyers to tour a Redfin listing without an agent through their Direct Access program. Homebuyers can tour by themselves vacant properties without an agent by using the Redfin app to unlock the home. Redfin has also partnered with ADT Security to help equip homes with smart locks and sensors. Redfin says they verify…
Not Even Bad News Helps Bonds
Even with this week jobs report the 2.50% mortgage bond closed last Friday at its lowest level since April 2nd. If the bond drops more than 40 bps than Holy Shit watch out below. If this happens rates might go up by ½% in just a couple of days. And the 10-Year Treasury Bill closed…
A Surprisingly Weak Jobs Report
· Our economy only created 194k new jobs last month which was much weaker than 500k expected. · There were upwards revisions totaling 169k more jobs created in July and August. · The private sector added 317k jobs, but government jobs fell by 123k. · The household survey showed there were 526k job creations and…
