Market Overview:
Today we are seeing a very slight rebound in the bond market after last weeks surprise jobs report sent bond prices plummeting. As a reminder - bond prices go down, and rates go up - so on the chart below, anything green is positive and represents prices going up, and rates going down.
It looks like we are moving sideways in a channel between a couple of levels of support and a falling 100 day moving average - which is represented by the purple line. Since mid-June you can see that the trend has been positive for interest rates, and now we are chopping sideways. If we break out of this channel upwards, we will see a big improvement in rates, and if we break downwards, we have a good way to drop in bonds, and rates could suffer.
Rate Chart:
Conforming 30yr Fixed Conventional | Mid 5% range |
Conforming 30yr Fixed FHA/VA | High 4's to Low 5's |
Hi-Bal 30yr Fixed Conventional | High 5's range |
​Hi-Bal 30yr Fixed FHA/VA | Mid 5's range |
Jumbo 30yr Fixed | High 5's range |
For informational purposes only - (obviously). Not a quote.
Still seeing a big benefit in buydown points - depending on client
ARMs coming back - just have to make sure fixed period is sufficient for goals
Question of the Week:
What is the max concessions a seller can give a buyer on a VA loan?
The max concessions on a VA loan is 4%. What is interesting about VA as opposed to FHA and Conventional is that the concessions can be used to pay off CONSUMER debt. So, one tactic that we use from time to time is - when a client does not qualify because of DTI - we can use seller credit to pay off credit cards, or car loans. Even if we have to increase the purchase price to do so, it almost never costs as much as the loans themselves, and a lot of times we can use this tactic to get buyers qualified when they otherwise wouldn't.
Another benefit is if you have EXCESSIVE seller credit (ie: seller credit is 10K and closing costs are only 9500) you can pay off debt so that you don't have to reduce sales price or give funds back to the seller.
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Have a great week! If you have any questions at all - please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Now is a great time to get pre-approvals in order with the shift to a buyers market and rates softening. Our team is ready to go, and we are doing 100% FULLY UNDERWRITTEN PRE-APPROVALS to keep you as competitive as possible! - DL