Tim McLaughlin, VP Weichert Financial
- The S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Indices showed a fourth consecutive month of increases for the 10 and 20 city composites, with both up 0.9% in July over June. “With July’s data, we are seeing not only anticipated monthly increases, but some fairly broad improvement in the annual rates of change in home prices,” says David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices. “Monthly price increases -were seen in 17 of the 20 cities. The exceptions were Las Vegas and Phoenix, where prices fell, while Denver was flat. The better news is that 14 of 20 cities and both composites saw their annual rates of change improve in July.
- Fixed mortgage rates sank to record lows over the past week following the Federal Reserve’s decision to buy longer term Treasuries and reinvest proceeds from MBS investment payoffs back into those securities, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey. The 30 year Fixed rate mortgage averaged 4.01% with .86 points for the week ended Thursday, down from 4.09% with .79 points the previous week and 4.32% with .62 points last year. Rates on 15 year Fixed rate mortgages averaged 3.28% with .77 points, down from 3.29% with .71 points last week and 3.75% with .72 points a year earlier. Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said interest rates for Adjustable rate mortgages, however, were nearly unchanged due to the Fed’s plans to sell $400 billion in short term Treasury securities and buy longer term notes and bonds. Shorter term securities serve as benchmarks for many Adjustable rate mortgages.
- On another note…The top 4 reasons borrowers refinanced in 1H11, according to a JD Powers Survey:
1) Reduce monthly mortgage payment
2) Reduce term of the mortgage
3) Consolidate debt
4) Cash out refinance for various purposes
