Mortgage Information and insight from a Utah Mortgage Lender.

Feast or Famine these days

Its feast or famine these days in the mortgage business and right now I have been invited over to the biggest feast I have ever witnessed in my time in the business. 

I truly appreciate all of the referrals you have been sending in and the email requests for Free Quotes.  I have been truly blessed.  But I am no dummy and my memory is longer then 5 minutes so I realize that this to shall pass.  So in preparation for that I am continuing to educate myself and stay up to date as much as possible with all the new loan programs and market trends. 

 It is very apparent that FHA loans are going to come back in full force as a leader in home financing, it will be more important then ever to be originating FHA loans in Utah and staying compliant with all of the new FHA guidelines and codes.  I have been spending any spare moment I can reviewing all of the fannie and freddie changes as well as the FHA guideline changes which can throw a wrench in your loan process if not addressed up front sometimes.

Government Auctioning Record Amounts of Debt

I have been looking into the bond auctions the last 2 weeks as interest rates have been on a Slow but steady incline.  From what I can tell there are 2 main reasons for the increase in rates. 

1. There is so much debt being auctioned off ($230 billion) in the last 2 weeks that even though the demand for these bonds is very good the supply is out weighing that demand. 

2.  Lenders have their little tails between their legs after being smacked in the nose with a rolled up news paper all last year at the end of every quarter and with each posted loss.  This tail between their legs effect is causing lenders to be very conservative on their rate pricing.  Typically the higher the rate the bigger the premium on the wholesale market, NOT True today.  In fact a quick look at the rate sheet shows 6% paying roughly the same premium as 5.5% which is barely paying more then 5%.  Don't get me wrong this flat pricing from what I have been told is not coming directly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac they are still paying large premiums for the higher rates but the lenders are keeping those premiums and not passing them through to those of us on the wholesale level.  They are trying to make up for a year and a half of losses here in the next few months.  LAME.

Heres are Novel Idea for all of you lenders out there.  Be fair, don't lend to people that can't afford their loans and you wont have the losses, then you wont have to penalize the mortgage brokers and the consumers with much higher rates then the present bond yields should be well, yielding.  In my opinion right now there is 1 maybe 2 lenders that are still playing ball on a level playing field and not making todays borrowers make up for yesterdays borrowers short sells.

I'm not here to promote 1 lender over another but if you apply with me trust that your loan will be going to a lender that is rewarding you today for todays actions and not living or being stuck in yesterdays losses.

Lock in your loans.  Call today and get started if you have not already.  We have a new administration in office that is ready to spend a lot of money and to do that they are going to continue to auction off debt as fast as the printers can print it.  Translation for you means bond yields can not come down until there is a supply issue in the bond market and that is not going to be anytime soon, so rates have no where to go but up for the short term.

Call me today to get started 801-655-5111 or email me @ stetsonlowe@gmail.com

Comments always welcome even if your wrong haha.

Stetson Lowe - Utah Mortgage Insider - www.utahloantips.com

Dont Wait Until it is to Late Refinance Your Loan Now!

Hello everybody and thanks for all of your emails and phone calls inquiring about rates.  Simply put, they are Amazing.  There has probably never been a better time to lock in a low fixed rate on a refinance or purchase here in Utah or anywhere around the country (if your fortunate to still have equity in the area which you live).

I hope every one had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years celebration.  By now you have all made your new years resolutions and are still sticking to them, good for you keep it up.  I have hardly had a spare minute to breath but I have made some personal and business goals or resolutions that I am very excited about this year.  Planning is the key, a wise man once said "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail."  I truly believe that.

Just as the title to this post states, Don't Wait Until it is to Late Refinance Your Loan Now.  Take action this year, don't be fence sitter guy who sits on the fence for so long waiting for the "perfect opportunity" that he ends up with nothing but an aching butt with slat prints firmly imprinted.  Have the courage to take action, call me and fill out a loan application or visit my website www.refinanceinutah.com either way you can be well on your way to saving $1000's of dollars just by spending 15 minutes with me on the phone or on my site. 

No one know's where the bottom is and if someone tells you they do run don't walk away from that person as they are just as full of it as Bernie Madoff the latest schemer to swindle billions, yes I said billions of dollars away from his unsuspecting investors.  I have yet to meet someone that would be unhappy with a 4.875% 30 year fixed loan and if you meet that person let them know there are hot-lines for people who are that negative and cynical:)

From Saint George to Logan and everywhere in between I can take care of you and your family and friends with world class service.

Speaking of Saint George and World Class Service my family and I were fortunate enough to spend a few days down at The Inn at Entrada this last week for new years.  If you ever get the chance to stay there Do It.  We had a beautiful 3 bedroom casita.  I loved the huge windows across the back that over looked the 16th hole of the Entrada Golf Course and behind that was amazing views of Snow Canyon and red rock buttes.  It was a little piece of Heaven carved out and put in Santa Clara Utah.  You can check out their website at http://www.innatentrada.com/ It was the perfect place to get away for a few days and go for some hikes, watch bowl games and eat really really good food.  The warm cookies and mild delivered to your door each night is a nice touch too.

I will try and post some pictures from our trip in the next few days.  I cant wait for the golf season to get started again up here and I know it will be here before we know it.

The Fed's are finally spending that money that they pledged (and I blogged about) back in July.  They have changed the way they are using it though, initially they were going to buy troubled or bad MBS (mortgage backed securities) from banks to free up their balance sheets and liquefy some of their assets.  After further review the ruling on the field is that they are now showing up to the bond auctions and buying their own bonds.  They are actually bidding against the private sector from what I have been told in an attempt to inject more capital into the bond market, lesson the credit freeze and kind of artificially drive down the yields on these bonds thereby lowering long term mortgage rates and creating a refi boom which leads to home buying, remodeling, debt consolidation and ultimately creates jobs and spurs on the anemic economy.

This would be their attempt to make this recession as short as possible and try to help people stay in their homes and keep more foreclosures from hitting the market.  We will have to watch and see what the long term will bring with this play.  I know an artificial bubble of any kind is never good.  We have all seen the .com bubble burst and most recently we witnessed the commodities bubble and more specifically the Oil bubble go POP.  Is this bond market going to be the next bubble that literally over night pops like a balloon that floated up and hit my grandma's old asbestos ceiling?  Proceed with caution and we all need to take advantage while we can.

2008 was not my year in the sporting world.  The cougs ended the year by laying an egg that Mother Goose would be proud of, the Red Sox went down, the Jazz showed up to the playoffs with their bags packed in the back seat of the escalades and Ferrari's just waiting by the exits for their series to be over, OK I shouldn't include all the Jazz in that statement but I still have a bad taste in my mouth for the biggest dud C Booz.  New England lost Tom Brady right out of the gates this season and they actually did better the rest of the year then I would have ever guest.  The bitter sweet ending to the sporting year for me was watching and actually cheering at times for Utah while they were laying a whooping on Bama.  My hats off to those guys for this season and for how they finished it off but I hope I never have to watch that again.  A nice 2nd place finish in the Mountain West Conference would be just fine with me for the boys in Red.  The one bright spot in the sporting world for me in 2008 was when the US Ryder Cup team layed a gold old fashioned butt kicking on the Europeans.  That was as close to a championship that any of my teams made it to this year and I was pumped when Sergio plunked two in a row in the water when he was playing match play against Anthony Kim, that was euphoric for me.

I do have to give props to the US Basketball team for representing very well and of course to Michael Phelps who is the only swimmer I can still name off of that team and probably will be the only swimmer I will ever remember again in my life time, what he did was very Tigeresk don't you think?  Maybe even more dominant?

I feel like 2009 is going to be a very very big year in my life and in many of our lives.  We have a new President and for better or for worse he's there so I wish him the best.  I don't envy him in anyway coming in to take over this mess but then again I don't think anyone in their right mind envy's Bush and all that he has had to take on in his 2 terms as President.

I hope America can use this time to take a step back and reevaluate ourselves as a country and as a people.  I would love to see us all go back to when a hand shake was a deal.  When your word was your bond and when everyone was looking out for their own best interest but never at the expense of another.  I hope we are weeding out the Madoff's of the world right now and getting back to how it is supposed to be. 

I can always hope....

Stetson Lowe - Utah Mortgage Insider - www.utahloantips.com