Fed Aid Sets Off a Rush to Refinance

[Karl]

"Cash Flow".!!! What a concept!!! think any one would buy the idea IF we could package it & sell it in government termanology??

 

[Bama Bayou]

The interest rate on the 10 year treasury bond fell below 3% today, the lowest ever. The 30 year mortgage rate is usually about 1.5 points above the ten year T-bond, which would indicate a mortgage rate of 4.5%. While I don't know if rates will get that low, it sure would help with both refis and purchases.

 

[Greg Bell]

The interest rate on the 10 year treasury bond fell below 3% today, the lowest ever. The 30 year mortgage rate is usually about 1.5 points above the ten year T-bond, which would indicate a mortgage rate of 4.5%. While I don't know if rates will get that low, it sure would help with both refis and purchases.

Mortgage rates will be slightly lower over the next few weeks, however , you will still need a job to get a mortgage , or will you..

 

[Bama Bayou]

Lower rates mean more appraisal work, and higher rates mean less. At least that's the way it's worked for me the last twenty years.

 

[Restrain]

Wife's gotten more work in the last week than she had in the month prior. Markets are freeing up, apparently.

 

[Al Location]

Mortgage rates will be slightly lower over the next few weeks, however , you will still need a job to get a mortgage , or will you..

Heh. You will still need equity. Or will you?

Not a lot of extra refi work for me, but the dam seems to be bursting on REO sales. Low prices and more readily available credit should make for a nifty little "perfect storm" for more work this winter.

 

[Lloyd Bonafide]

Eventually this largess has to lead to inflation.

With the government spending money like crazy this year, and with a trillion dollar plus deficit forecast for 2009, you would think that we would have a lot more inflation. Maybe it will happen in the next few years, who knows? I hope not.

Is it possible that all of the fiscal inflation factors will be offset by all of the deflationary forces, (dropping prices on oil, commodities, real estate, even stock prices), almost cancel each other out, and that U.S. interest rates could stay at fairly low levels for the next decade or more? Keep in mind that the dollar may not get hammered, because other countries around the world are having similar if not worse problems than the U.S.

Take the $700 billion bank bailout. The Treasury Dept. is not selling debt in this amount. They are just creating new money, and electronically sending the billions to all of the banks. In effect they are just replacing money that the banks have lost. Is this type of spending really going to have a substantial inflationary effect or not?

 

[Al Location]

With this, you never get to the point where you incentivize real growth. The recovery of your particular financial sector is always dependent on a bailout of another one. It's just not sustainable. Even a government jobs creation program. Where is the growth to sustain that?

You're not going to get an investment or entrepreneurial class coming in off the sidelines as long as you send the message that you will tax whatever success they have doing it.

 

[Restrain]

There was a note on TV the other day. The amount of loan guarantees, deficits, etc now is twice the cost of WWII, and multiples of the money spent on Vietnam and Iraq.

 

[Elliott]

Bama said, Lower rates mean more appraisal work, and higher rates mean less.

Rising interest rates mean more work. Falling rates mean borrowers
will wait, hoping for a lower rate.