Financial Markets
The Dow Jones chugs along and ends the week with another 100 + point gain, landing at 12,391. 100 pts may not seem like much, but it is equivalent to nearly 1%. If you earned 1% per week, your initial investment would double every two years.
The bond market, and in particular mortgage backed securities, held its own, with the price of the Fannie MAE 4.0 Coupon improving slightly this week. There were no significant reports that provided momentum for the rally. It was more a matter of a market that was long overdue for a correction of some sort.
On tap for the upcoming week is the Consumer Confidence Index, Existing Home Sales, New Home Sales, GDP and of course the Jobless Claims report. It could be the makings of a tumultuous week for mortgage rates.
Local Economy and Real Estate Market
Marcus and Millichap, a California-based research firm, released a retail sales report that predicts Las Vegas will experience an increase of 8% as a result of improving economic conditions nationally. The report also predicts that casinos will expand payroll for the first time in 4 years.
From a national perspective, 30 day mortgage delinquencies fell in the 4th quarter of 2010 to its lowest level in two years. Below is the link to real estate expert Diana Olick’s article.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41646405
This past month represents our 5-month anniversary, opening up a branch for Primary Residential Mortgage Inc. Up until now, I have only been able to tell you what we “CAN” do for you and your clients. I’d like to take a moment to tell you what we “HAVE DONE”.
· The past 7 purchase transactions have taken an average of 20.7 days to go from application to final approval and docs to title. The fastest being 14 days, all but one was final-approved in less than 20 days. 2 were transferred from other lenders that struggled for weeks to secure financing.
· This past week, we funded a 95% conventional loan in which the buyer’s FICO score was under 680.
· Because I have access to a phenomenal “in-house” underwriter (who is seated literally 20 feet away from me) I have a 100% conversion rate of prequalifications, meaning not one buyer that I have prequalified has gone to contact and then unable to secure financing.
It has been a pleasure working with you all (you are only on this email if we have worked together previously) and look forward to providing a superior home buying experience for your clients!
