Thirty-Year Rate Holds Fast to Its Record Low

As per Origination news..The average weekly rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in Freddie Mac’s primary market survey held steady at its record low of 3.78% during the week ending May 24.

The average rate for a 15-year FRM, at 3.04%, also remained unchanged week to week. Similarly, the five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid stayed put at 2.83%.
The average rate for a one-year Treasury adjustable-rate mortgage slid three basis points to 2.78% and carried an average of just 0.4 of a point.
The 30-year, in contrast, came with an average of 0.8 of a point in the most recent week, while the 15-year carried an average of 0.7 of a point and the five-year Treasury hybrid included on average 0.6 of a point.
The plateau in most rates came during a week when there were several indicators suggesting relative improvement in the housing market, said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft in his weekly report. He said rate-driven affordability contributed to this.
Nothaft also noted in his monthly economic and housing outlook issued Wednesday that there have been some encouraging signals, although residential fixed investment is still weak.
A Mortgage Bankers Association report adjusting the group’s origination estimates upward Thursday did so on the strength of higher-than-expected refinancing that government programs as well as rates have contributed to.
But it also suggested that purchase volumes look weaker than they had.

Home prices rise for first time in 8 months

As per The Niche Report Home prices rose in March for the first time since last July, helped by tighter housing inventory, data analysis firm CoreLogic said on Tuesday.

CoreLogic’s home price index gained 0.6 percent from February, but was still down 0.6 percent compared with March a year ago.
Excluding sales of distressed properties, prices climbed 0.9 percent on a yearly basis. Homeowners in danger of foreclosure, or in “distress”, often sell their homes at significantly reduced prices.
“This spring, the housing market is responding to an improving balance between real estate supply and demand, which is causing stabilization in house prices”, Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic, said in a statement.
Of the top 100 statistical areas measured by population, 57 showed year-over-year declines, down from 65.
The closely watched S&P/Case Shiller index released in late April showed a rise in U.S. single-family home prices in February for the first time in 10 months, with a gain of 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis.

15 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Hits New All-Time Record Low

 released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) on the 12th of April 2012, showing average fixed mortgage rates declining for the third consecutive week on the heels of a weaker than expected employment report. The 30-year fixed averaged just above its record low while the 15-year fixed averaged a new all-time record low of 3.11 percent breaking its previous low of 3.13 percent on March 8, 2012.

News Facts

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.88 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending April 12, 2012, down from last week when it averaged 3.98 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.91 percent.
• 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.11 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.21 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.13 percent.
• 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.85 percent this week, with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.86 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.78 percent.
• 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.80 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.78 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 3.25 percent. 

This report follows the weaker than expected unemployment report from March. A good way to get updates from FreddieMac would be to follow the Office of the Chief Economist Follow @FreddieMac

Demand for Apartments is Driving the Multifamily Mortgage Market

Per Niche Report ... rather than looking for single-family residences, more Americans are opting for rental deals, and thus the mortgage market for multifamily properties like apartment buildings is heating up.

The rate of American home ownership has fallen to levels not seen since another financial bubble became manifest on Wall Street. In November of 1998, the dot-com bubble was in full swing with the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the Globe.com, an online social network that failed to attain the stature of Facebook. That IPO made history by allowing lucky investors to realize the most one-day gains ever, and it only took one year for it to collapse. Interest rates at that time were considerably low at that time, and thus home ownership began to edge up in 1998. Mortgage interest rates are even lower today, and yet rates of home ownership are just as low as they were then.

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Details of the $25B mortgage settlement emerge

As per Niche report.com , the U.S. Department of Justice has filed the respective settlement agreements that the five major mortgage lenders recently signed in relation to their questionable foreclosure processing practices. The agreements amount to a total $26 billion monetary settlement that the banks will have to disburse in the form of cash payments and mortgage principal reductions.

The financial entities involved are: Ally Financial (formerly GMAC), Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. The agreements are highly detailed and complex, as evidenced by the fact that they are more than 300 pages each. Although the settlement agreements were signed earlier this year, the full details and the mechanisms the banks must adopt to compensate their mortgage borrowers are just beginning to emerge.This settlement is historic in the sense that it is the highest sum obtained from private enterprises by a joint state and federal effort. For the homeowners who were wrongly foreclosed upon and evicted from their properties, the settlement brings some relief.

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