It’s been quite some time since my last “Week in Review”…As you can see, my team and I transitioned to a new mortgage company. I am excited to share with you the phenomenal features about the new company, but I am more of a “proof is in the pudding” kind of a guy so in the upcoming weeks I will provide data with average # of days to docs, and unique circumstances that we have successfully secured financing. Now that the transition is complete and I have my first month with First Cal in the rear view mirror, I am energized to get back to what I enjoy most and do best, helping home owners secure financing.
Financial Markets
Friday was a dismal day for the stock market as the Dow Jones shed 300 points on a number of economic reports that failed to satisfy investors. National unemployment inched up from 8% to 8.2%. Roughly 69,000 jobs were created but the general consensus is that you need roughly 150,000 jobs to be created on a monthly basis to simply keep pace with population growth. Consumer confidence dipped and of course, the European Union is been unable to right the debt-crisis ship, which compounded investor confidence in stocks. The silver lining, as many of you know, is very low mortgage rates. In many instances, 30 yr fixed mortgages are below 4%.
Southern Nevada Real Estate Related Data
We all know “the sitch” (Jersey Shore reference). Inventory down…prices up…(so simple a caveman gets it). So who reaps the benefits of Bill 284? Home builders for starters…347 new home sales were recorded in April, a 34% improvement from April 2011. Year to date, new home closings reached 1,220, up 20% Median prices are up 6% from a year ago as well.
Who else benefits from Bill 284? Sellers engaged in a short sale transaction. The estimated timeframe for the bank to foreclose on a home owner has now doubled, (and may even triple but still don’t know the full affects of the Bill) and clearly there is a financial benefit for the bank to agree to a short sale, more so now than ever before. In April, 30% of the sales consisted of short sales for Southern Nevada.
First month with FirstCal Mortgage:
In my first month, I closed 10 transactions with the company and I have been over the moon with excitement on the consistency and speed of the fulfillment aspect of the transactions. On average, it took 21.8 days to get docs out from the time the file was submitted to processing. With two transactions, we had docs out in 13 days! The average doesn’t strip out the days missed because the value did not come in and buyer and seller had to renegotiate.
