Mortgages MAX

Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch
Mortgage rates ended last week at their best levels since early December. Then rates rose on Monday, gained back lost ground on Tuesday only to give back those improvements after the FOMC statement on Wednesday, weakness then extend over into Thursday. This left the par 30 year fixed mortgage rate in the 4.875 to 5.125 range. Today, all eyes were on the release of Advance 4th Quarter GDP. At 8:30 am the US Department of Commerce released the advance read on 4th quarter Gross Domestic Product. This is the first of three 4th Quarter GDP release, today’s report will be revised in February and March. GDP is the broadest measure of total economic activity and includes every sector of our economy. It is basically our economy’s score card. A rapidly growing economy usually leads to inflation…(read more)
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Original post by Victor Burek

Posted To: The Garrett Watts Report
Securities firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods has identified 393 banks with Texas ratios greater than 100%. If we assume that 75% of them will fail (our number, not Keefe’s), that would represent $141 billion in assets, and assuming a 25% loss ratio (our number, not theirs), this would cost the FDIC $35 billion. If you’re worried that you’ll be required to own 5% of every loan you sell, find something else to worry about. Congress is not going to allow something that would kill the housing recovery….. and housing itself. Even if it did get passed, we guarantee you that some Wall Street firm would figure out how to securitize the 5% pieces. Private funds would buy them, and even if they got bought at a discount, that would just be factored into what the borrower pays….(read more)
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Original post by C.M. "Corky" Watts, CMB

Posted To: MBS Commentary
Good Morning. Mortgage Rates will move higher today after economists got what they were expecting AND MORE from Advance Q4 GDP. The market was expecting Q4 GDP to increase at a rate of 4.6%. The actual print: +5.7% Advance Q4 GDP +5.7 % (consensus +4.6), Q3 +2.2 %; final sales +2.2 % (cons +1.6), Q3 +1.5 % Advance Q4 GDP deflator +0.6 % (cons +1.3) vs Q3 +0.4 % Q4 PCE price index +2.7 % (cons +2.6), Q3 +2.6 %; core PCE +1.4 % (cons +1.3), Q3 +1.2 % Q4 consumer spending +2.0 % (Q3 +2.8 %), durables -0.9 % (Q3 +20.4 %) Q4 market-based PCE price index +2.7 % (Q3 +2.8 %), core +1.1 % (Q3 +1.2 %) Q4 business investment +2.9 % (Q3 -5.9 %), equipment/software +13.3 % (Q3 +1.5 %) Q4 home investment +5.7 % (Q3 +18.9 %), bus. Investment in structures -15.4 % [...]

Original post by Adam Quinones