HARP 2.0, enabling home owner’s to refinance regardless of loan to value provided the loan is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will not roll out now until the end of March. Both agencies are still in the process of building their automated underwriting systems to support the guideline changes.
Financial Markets
The Dow ended the week up roughly 150 points, ending at 12,359. A stronger than expected unemployment report was released Friday, with over 200,000 private sector jobs created in December. The national unemployment rate dropped to 8.5%, the U-6 report (underemployment, those that gave up looking for a job and part-time workers looking for full time employment) remains high, at 15.2%.
Mortgage rates, which ordinarily would have risen off the news of a stronger than expected jobs report actually improved slightly Friday, as drama in Europe’s credit scene continued. The latest, Hungary’s bonds were downgraded to “junk” status.
Southern Nevada Real Estate and Economy
No articles of interest this week, but did a little research on the local unemployment numbers for the past 20 years. In January 2008, with the housing market in free-fall, the unemployment rate still remained low, at roughly 5%. In just 1 year, the unemployment rate sky-rocketed to 9.9%, basically doubling. In the following 12 months, unemployment continued its unprecedented climb, reaching 14.7% in January 2010. Unemployment rose 200% in 24 months…In the previous two recessions (1993 and 2000), unemployment recovered to its pre-unemployment rate in about same time it took to reach its peak. That won’t happen in this recovery, but it is encouraging that a recovery in employment can happen quickly.
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&met_y=unemployment_rate&idim=state:ST320000&fdim_y=seasonality:S&dl=en&hl=en&q=nevada+unemployment
