This week sees the mortgage rate in Florida sitting at 4.42 with an average 0.7  points, according to the weekly  report by Freddie Mac, for the   week ending August 28,  2010. The national rate is hovering at 4.36.

 *Fees and Points are the total charged by the lender at settlement. One point equals one percent of the loan amount. Primary Mortgage Market Survey® data provided by Freddie Mac.

Amy Crews Cutts, deputy chief economist,  Freddie Mac had a few interesting facts to interpret the rates in the current climate. Cutts spoke of  house prices, existing home sales  and future home sales.

1. Existing home sales plunged 27 percent in July, with new homes falling 12 percent to a new all-time record low. This has  led to  market concerns that the housing market may slow the economic recovery. The knock-on effect of  declining existing home sales is that long-term bond yields fell to the lowest levels since January 2009.
2. Much of the slowdown in sales, however, was predicted due to the recently expired home-buyer tax programs, which pulled through future home purchases into the first half of the year. 
3. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's purchase only index, house prices continue to appear to be stabilizing. Across the country house prices rose 0.9 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis during the second quarter  of the year  with 8 of the 9 census regions experiencing positive gains, compared to none in the first quarter.

US Weekly Currency Interbank Exchange Rates 28/08/ 2009

Here is the the  summary from our currency expert Charles Purdy on how the US dollar fared this week...

The US dollar continues to move with investor risk appetite. Economic data has been  paltryover the last couple of weeks.

• Poor employment data was followed by the worse resale home figures for 15 years in July.

•  Friday saw the release of better than expected US GDP figures with growth for the second quarter at 2.4%.

Comment (0)

It has been estimated that 20.8 million people visited Florida between April and June, this indicates a  3.4 percent increase from the same time period last year.

The number of domestic visitors, who form the bulk of  the Florida tourism scene, only increased by 2.4 percent. However the sunshine state saw 11.9 percent more overseas guests and 10.4 percent more Canadians visiting.

This really is a good signal for current and potential holiday home/ rental investors coupled with healthy sales and mortgage rates.

The April 20 BP disaster sent oil to beaches in the Florida Panhandle and threatened the entire state, putting tourism offices on the defensive.

BP forked out  a whopping $25 million to Florida to enable them to spearhead tourism campaigns and sent another $7 million to Panhandle counties.

Visit Florida, the  tourism bureau, undertook  a Web offensive to give potential visitors a real-time view of the state's beaches,

• updated photos
• videos
• beach and fishing reports 

Comment (0)

This week sees the mortgage rate in Florida dip to 4.45 with an average 0.7  points, according to the weekly  report by Freddie Mac, for the   week ending August 14,  2010. The national rate is hovering at 4.44.

 *Fees and Points are the total charged by the lender at settlement. One point equals one percent of the loan amount. Primary Mortgage Market Survey® data provided by Freddie Mac.

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist in his weekly summary mentioned the reports that indicate a  sluggish job market.

• Private payrolls indicated an increase  of 71,000 jobs in July, below the market consensus forecast, and revisions shaved June's growth by 34,000 workers.
• The Federal Reserve also stated in its August 10th policy statement that the pace of recovery in output and employment slowed since its last meeting in June.

Nothaft stated that Low rates are helping the recovery of  many battered local housing markets by increasing home-purchase activity...

1. The National Association of Realtors® reported that 65 percent of the 155 metropolitan areas they track experienced yearly increases in the second quarter of this year.
2. Compare that to 60 percent of areas in the first quarter and only 44 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009.

US Weekly Currency Interbank Exchange Rates 13/08/ 2009

Here is the the  summary from our currency expert Charles Purdy on how the US dollar fared this week...

Against the US dollar, sterling leapt to a 6 month high against US dollar this week, however since Monday sterling has been on a downward trend after the Federal Reserve announced further Quantitative Easing.

On Wednesday, it was decided was that the US economy has underperformed for the last quarter and as such, it needs a further boost. As a result, risk aversion is back in play and there is strong demand for the safe haven US dollars despite major concerns over the US economy.

Charles indicates  that Now might be a good time to secure prices to stop the market moving further against you as some analysts are predicting a return to the $1.40s.  

If you would like a Private and Free  currency consultation  with Charles or one of his team... just hit the Contact us Form.

Comment (0)

 *Fees and Points are the total charged by the lender at settlement. One point equals one percent of the loan amount. Primary Mortgage Market Survey® data provided by Freddie Mac

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist in his weekly summary stated that, again, interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages and now the hybrid 5-year ARM fell to all-time record lows this week following the second quarter GDP release .

Nothafts Thoughts...

• Annual revisions cut the cumulative GDP growth in half over the past three years ending in the first quarter of 2010 from 1.4 percent to 0.6 percent. (This reduces inflationary pressures and will allow longer-term rates room to ease.)
• Housing investment picked up in the second quarter of the year as the homebuyer tax credit fueled new and existing sales whilst low mortgage rates encouraged remodeling. Fixed residential investment added 0.6 percentage points to second quarter real GDP growth following two quarters of decline.

Comment (0)

( We are back from our 2 week annual break.. even the news stops for our holiday... lol)

The Florida mortgage rate persists at record lows( 6 weeks).  This week sees the  (30 yr FRM) drop to  4.6o with an average 0.7  points, according to the weekly  report by Freddie Mac, for the   week ending July 31,  2010. The national mortgage  rate is  4.54!

 *Fees and Points are the total charged by the lender at settlement. One point equals one percent of the loan amount. Primary Mortgage Market Survey® data provided by Freddie Mac

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist in his weekly brief stated that, for 6 weeks in a row record lows were witnessed amidst  mixed housing data reports.

•   13 metropolitan areas in the S&P/Case-Shiller® 20-city index experienced price appreciation over the 12-months ending in May, compared to 11 in April and 10 in March. (The number of local markets experiencing annual increases in home prices appears to be growing.)

•  Existing home sales in June slowed to an annualized pace of 4.37 million units, the fewest since March.  Despite new home sales jumping nearly 24 percent to 330,000 dwellings, it represented the second slowest rate since 1963.

 The US dollar did strengthen transiently on Monday after strong US housing data, however US unemployment claims were fairly unimpressive.

The big data of the week 

GDP data shows that the US economy grew by 2.4% in the last quarter. This was worse than expected and shows a fall from last quarter’s figure of 3.7%.

Final Thoughts...

The US recovery is stalling, but there is still scope for volatility over the next few months.

Comment (0)

 *Fees and Points are the total charged by the lender at settlement. One point equals one percent of the loan amount. Primary Mortgage Market Survey® data provided by Freddie Mac

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist in his weekly commentary discussed the impact these rates are having on the US economy...

Comment (0)

 *Fees and Points are the total charged by the lender at settlement. One point equals one percent of the loan amount. Primary Mortgage Market Survey® data provided by Freddie Mac

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist in his weekly commentary spoke of this weeks  record lows manifesting in a period where the economy is struggling  to gain momentum and to boot  inflation remains very low. Nothaft then quoted some economic stats, 

1. Growth estimates for first quarter GDP were revised down by a half percentage point over the past two months to 2.7 percent.( Bureau of Economic Analysis)
2.  Annual inflation, as measured by the 12-month change in the core CPI, held at 0.9 percent in April and May, which is the slowest pace in over 44 years( Bureau of Labor Statistics )

Nothaft then rounded up by mentioning current home prices,

• House prices are improving due in part to the homebuyer tax credit. The S&P/Case-Shiller® 20-city home price index grew 0.4 percent between March and April and was up 3.9 percent from April 2009(the largest annual gain since October 2006)
•  17 of the metropolitan areas experienced monthly gains in April, compared to 10 in March and six in February.

US Weekly Currency Interbank Exchange Rates 02/07/ 2009

The  summary from our currency expert Charles Purdy on how the US dollar fared this week...

In the USA, , pending home sales dropped by 30% in May, following an expiry of tax credits for property buyers and the ISM manufacturing index fell from 59.7 to 56.2 – the biggest fall in activity since December 2009.

The main event of Friday was the US Non-Farm payroll data. Most experts were expecting a fall of over 100,000 jobs on the month and the actual figure came in slightly worse at 125,000.

The problem that the US needs to face head on, is the nations  huge debts. However there seems to be a lack of a plan to do this. Unlike the Europeans the only thought seems to be to throw more money at the economy in an attempt to keep it moving forward.

Comment (0)

 *Fees and Points are the total charged by the lender at settlement. One point equals one percent of the loan amount. Primary Mortgage Market Survey® data provided by Freddie Mac

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist in his weekly commentary stated,  that mortgage rates (bar, traditional 1-year ARMs) hit all-time record lows this week, while activity in the housing market decreased in May following the  closure of the homebuyer tax credits. Nothaft then spoke of the the unexpected declines in May,  for both new and existing home sales.

•  Existing sales fell 2.2 percent, compared to the market consensus forecast of a 6.0 percent gain, based on stats published by the National Association of Realtors® . 
•  According to the Census Bureau , sales of new homes fell 32.7 percent to an annualized rate of 300,000 units, which was the largest monthly drop and slowest pace since records began in 1963.

US Weekly Currency Interbank Exchange Rates 26/06/ 2009

Comment (0)

Historically  low  Florida mortgage rates persist. This week sees the  (30 yr FRM)  hover at  4.74 with an average 0.7  points, according to the weekly  digest by Freddie Mac, for the   week ending June 19,  2010. The national mortgage  rate is  4.75.

 *Fees and Points are the total charged by the lender at settlement. One point equals one percent of the loan amount. Primary Mortgage Market Survey® data provided by Freddie Mac

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist in his weekly brief stated,

The hovering mortgage rates this week in Florida and nationally were reported  amid preliminary signs that the expiration of the home-buyer tax credit in April may have led to a slowdown in new construction properties.

• Starts on single-family homes fell 17 % to an annualized pace of 468,000 units in May from April’s 20-month high.
• Permits on one-unit homes fell to the slowest pace since May 2009.
• According to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index , builders expressed  more pessimism in their near-term outlook in June.

BUT...
Nothaft did mention that  household balance sheets have  improved over the past four quarters. On average,

1. Households gained $6.3 trillion in net worth in the first quarter from a year ago, as reported  by the Federal Reserve .
2. Homeowners have regained $1.1 trillion in home equity over the same time period.

US Weekly Currency Interbank Exchange Rates 19/06/ 2009

 The  summary from our currency expert Charles Purdy on how the US dollar fared this week...

The USA, monthly inflation data came in as anticipated but unemployment claims rose by 12,000. This saw some US dollar strength initially, but as investors took in data elsewhere, risk appetite returned and the US dollar weakened as funds flowed into riskier assets.

However one good week doesn’t necessarily mean the downward trend for sterling against the US$ has been broken and the market still expects the US$ to make further gains.

 

Comment (0)

Historically  low  Florida mortgage rates persist. This week sees the  (30 yr FRM)  slide to  4.73 with an average 0.7  points, according to the weekly  digest by Freddie Mac, for the   week ending June 11,  2010. The national mortgage  rate is  4.72.

 *Fees and Points are the total charged by the lender at settlement. One point equals one percent of the loan amount. Primary Mortgage Market Survey® data provided by Freddie Mac

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist in his weekly brief stated that this week saw a relatively weak employment report, bond yields fell during the week and mortgage rates followed.

The Lowdown...

• Private payrolls rose by 41,000 jobs in May, less than a quarter of the market forecast consensus of an 180,000 gain.
• Interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgage hovered  near the record low set on December 3, 2009 in the Primary Mortgage Market Survey which  began in April 1971. 

Notthaft concluded by stating that  overall, the economy did show signs of improvement.

1. The Federal Reserve reported in its June 9th regional economic review that the economy strengthened in all 12 of its Districts over April and May.
2.  It also noted that loan quality was stable or improving in most Districts, but remained an issue for banks with large exposure to real estate."

Comment (0)