Primary Residential Mortgage ranked 10th in the nation for issuing FHA loans for the first half of 2011. Within the top 10, they ranked 5th in percentage of serious delinquencies, which is about where we would like to see our parent company. It shows that we are closing loans correctly, which gives us confidence that FHA would want to continue working with us but also shows that we are taking risk in the FHA loans that we close.
Financial Markets
The Dow Jones gained over 370 points for the week from its low of 12,296, and ended the week at 12,668. The gain was primarily a result of weakness in the bond market as opposed to strength in stocks.
The bond market is seeing selling pressure because investors are concerned that Congress and the White House won’t come to an agreement on the budget and most importantly raising the debt ceiling. By not raising the debt ceiling, US Bonds could very well likely see a downgrade in its rating, which will trigger foreign investors to flee the US bond market in general and we will see a significant sell-off, which leads to yields moving in the opposite direction and would send mortgage rates up sharply. On Friday, mortgage backed securities were extremely volatile. They started out strong because it was rumored that the White House was close to an agreement on the budget and debt ceiling, only to have White House Press Secretary Jay Carney refute the rumors, which instigated the sell-off.
Southern Nevada Real Estate and Economy
Home builders nationwide and locally were greeted to a better than expected sales number for the month of June this past week. 459 new permits were pulled in June 2011, up from 435 in May 2011 and up from 402 in June 2010. Interesting quotes in the article below:
“Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders”.
“In past modern-day recessions, housing accounted for 15-20% of overall economic growth. This time around, (between 2009 and 2010) housing contributed to just 4% of the nation’s gross domestic product”…
These statistics are great examples of how the economy and housing are entangled together and why it has been such a long drawn out process to recover from the latest recession. You need jobs to help housing and you need housing to help jobs…
http://www.lvrj.com/business/building-jumps-in-june-after-slow-spring-125875248.html
