MBA: Refinance activity increases as mortgage rates fall to record low
Submitted by
CalculatedRisk on Wed, 02/08/2012 - 6:42am (126 comments)
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My neighbor is refinancing. Again. I probably will soon. Again. Can't say that I find it very productive, but it keeps a lot of people busy.
Edit: But then again, the same can be said of wars
The purchase index is still moving sideways at a very low level, but I expect the changes to HARP to lead to a surge in refinance activity in March.
Here's a helpful FAQ.
January 2012 : HARP Program Mortgage Refinance Guidelines | The Mortgage Reports : Today's Mortgage Rates & Strategy
Will my home require an appraisal with the HARP mortgage program?
Sort of. Although your home's value doesn't matter for the HARP mortgage program, lenders will run what's called an "automated valuation model" (AVM) on your home. If the value meets reliability standards, no physical appraisal will be required. However, your lender may choose to commission a physical appraisal anyway -- just to make sure your home is "standing".
January was USA's 4th-warmest on record
curious wrote:
They use Zillow. Actually not, but something very similar that may be (Or not) fractionally more accurate. So paying someone to drive by to make sure there is some kind of structure on the lot should be adequate due diligence as long as someone else is on the hook.
Tom Stone wrote:
IOW, "We don't care what the intrinsic value is, as long as we're able to pass it along to someone else who's equally ignorant."
You know, I think they have a name for a scheme built around that mindset.
I waiting for the no doc, no income refi.
Good morning
Mook wrote:
"America"
SPOOL wrote:
Dammit! Beat me to it! Though, it's actually spelled, " 'merica"
CR quoted:
This week's obligatory equivalency calculation, brought to you courtesy of MBA:
$300,000 30yr FRM @ 4.05% = $1,440/mo. = $216,500 30yr FRM @ 7.00%
Have a nice day.
Mook wrote:
"Savvy."
I was just reading Karl's post where he's being critical about this article on Bernanke, but I think even he is missing the point:
Bernanke-Led Economy Shows Critics Wrong About Fed
Low velocity is the cover of darkness underneath which the Federal Reserve can print and can temporarily get away with it.
That is, it has been the historical pattern for central authorities to print during slow economic times and then proudly proclaim that there is no consequence. This occurs because in the short-term low velocity suppresses the price-inflationary effects of the increased money supply.
Then down the road when velocity returns and prices begin to surge the monetary authority will proclaim its innocence protesting that "We're not doing anything now. Clearly it's some factor we don't control that's causing the inflation now!"
You'll notice that modern economics increasingly relies on the ignorance people have with regard to inflation, especially in terms of hiding the distinction between very different concepts -- money supply, velocity and prices -- by lumping them altogether under one obfuscating term called "inflation".
This kind of systematic misinformation that pervades all of the politics and academics of economics and is the ultimate reason why the FIRE economy can keep sucking the life out of the rest of the real economy.
Right. So are you calling ZIRP forever, or are you saying CR's housing price bottom call is rubbish?
Oh, and you can follow that up with the equivalent increase in payment needed to keep that house price at 300k, and then, for shits and giggles, compare that to trends in median income and forecasts for such.
AllGov - News - U.S. Constitution Losing Influence as Model for Other Nations
km4 wrote:
Little surprise -- it lost most of its influence as a model for our nation years ago.
Looks like it was read already....
I know for a fact loans were made on empty lots that supposedly had homes on them. That is about as much as I can say out of respect for the person who showed me the paperwork...no they weren't involved in the scam.
ETA...2004-2005 time frame.
Chris
I am slow this morning....more coffee needed.
GDD9000 wrote:
Well, it'll definitely be one or the other ...
Though to be fair, current rates have relatively little to do with ZIRP vis-a-vis GSE's now-total control over the securitization market. Keep rates at 0 all you like and pass a law requiring lenders to hold 25% of any loan originated on their books until maturity, and see where the average FRM gets priced after that.
Drive by appraisals where common back in the 80's in Denver.
Good Morning
Like Japan, right?
Mook wrote:
We need an icon for a dude spewing his coffee all over the monitor.
Not. Gonna. Happen.
Nokia to Cut 4,000 Jobs at 3 Factories
- NY Times
Greece Should Take the Money and Run - The Euro Crisis - WSJ
Brother, I hope you can spare some change I can believe in!
energyecon wrote:
"One, according to IMF projections, the Greek economy will contract by 3% this year and be broadly flat next."
Uh huh.
better in March.....
ah yes, spring, when hope springs eternal
GDD9000 wrote:
And they're probably right, if they're using this definition of "flat".
(Memo to Ken: Howsabout a :flatline: icon?)
Still lots of shadow inventory.
It’s Hard Out Here For a Finch - Lovely Listing - Odd Finds in Real Estate Listings
ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:
+1
Cobradriver wrote:
No surprise. I reported equally obvious frauds and so did people I know. No action.
Mook wrote:
"He's dead, Jim"
I'm out the door. 5 places on the Broker's tour, two look like they may be OK. one's a PUD. Buy a PUD and get punked.
They did arrest a guy here for doing the same.
Neuroscience could mean soldiers controlling weapons with minds | Science | The Guardian
Amazon.com: Mindflex Duel Game: Toys & Games
The historical average for mortgages rates is approx. 8 percent.
gruntled wrote:
It's all right though... every step away from the ideas articulated in the Constitution is accompanied by a step towards the models of Colonial England and feudal Europe, so at least we know there is a destination the elites have in mind for us, as well as historical inspiration that they can draw from.
KarmaPolice wrote:
That makes the correction I use even bigger then 6.5%. Lots more price drop needed.
Greek debt deal near : a reality view of the ECB's shell game :
The plans for European Central Bank Greek debt haircut involvement merely pass the parcel yet again | Mindful Money
Job Openings hit a 3 year high.
Bottom Line - Job openings hit nearly 3-year high at end of 2011
Actually, most of the foreclosed housing will never regain its value.
In places like Modesto, Las Vegas, much of Florida, Georgia should be reverted back to farmland/desert/hillbilly-land
Mook wrote:
Pets.com?
Damn I miss that sock pet.....
Interesting for sale sign in Pasadena front yard:
Kevin Holczer's Photos | Facebook
Greek PM Meeting With Party Leaders Expected At 1500 GMT-Govt Official - WSJ.com
East coast GMT -5
Left coast GMT -8
KarmaPolice wrote:
Are mortgages assumable?
Read the overnight thread and you'll see lots.
BarleyReturns wrote:
Reminds of the time when the Irish were fighting amongst themselves and one side invited the English in to help. That did not work out so well. Sometime invited guests never leave. I don't think the Iranian Black Hats think the Aliwites are real Muslims.
GDD9000 wrote:
That's what they said about housing prices going down... If I were an MBS buyer, I sure would not mind if the originator had skin in the game. Some kind of shared risk might be required to get non-GSEs back into the game.
OT: Well this is a surprise.
Focus: Executive pay and performance | The Economist
For EE and Dawg...
For EE its another way to make nat gas [like we need that right]...
For Dawg - its Audi pr0n...
YouTube - Audi A3 TCNG e-gas project - balanced mobility
Enjoy!
My parents had a 15 percent mortgage at one time.
It's hard to imagine!
Everybody at my Section 8 apartment building is rushing in to refinance.
Blackhalo wrote:
Hell, put originators in the first-loss position. Anything less and they are just back to selling crap.
KarmaPolice wrote:
Fish you caught were bigger back then, too.
... is this ee's birthday ? : CARPE DIEM: Canadian Oil Renaissance From High Prices and New Technology, or Why Peak Oil is Peak Idiocy
KarmaPolice wrote:
No it isn't.
If you bring your own jars to the well, oil companies will actually fill them with natural gas for free. But, don't hang out there too long. You might get hooked on meth.
KarmaPolice wrote:
My Dad managed to top-tick the CD market.
And to think I believed he was unsophisticated because he never owned stocks...
Elvis wrote:
Yes and they probably paid $12,000 for the home ( plus or minus )
dryfly wrote:
Jenkem again?!
Lets see....... If I were to do something stupid and take out a loan on this place (like the gal behind me just did for $100K), what would my mortgage payments be for 15-years?
Number of Payments: 180
Monthly Payment: $754.81 (Add to this taxes and old man mortgage insurance - read: $1K)
Total Principal Paid: $100,000.00
Total Interest Paid: $35,866.06
Total Paid: $135,866.06
....And why would I want to do this again? Please refresh my drug and booze "cleansed" memory....
dryfly wrote:
Depends on where - LNG cargos are running ~$15/mcf in Asia/Pacific - that was running $10-$12/mcf for the EZ but they should be spiking higher with the extreme weather they having.
Now if it is electricity that is otherwise surplus with extremely limited storage capacity, that energy is stored in the chemical bonds of CH4 for later use and leveraging existing physical infrastructure - that is a slick solution.
What kind of scale it can deliver is another question, but one well worth investigating. Props to Audi and thanks dry.
Refinancing activity reminds me of Judge Reinholdt trying to sell huge speakers to some kid or young couple in a movie...
"if you can't afford them, fu%%ing finance them, these are the only speakers you'll ever need in your entire life, and when you die they can bury you in them."
Yup and the 15 years or 30 years resets and your back to square one...thanks but no thanks.
EU tempers fray as Greece seeks deal - The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, Feb. 08, 2012 8:08AM EST
"One deadline after another has come and gone. Leaders of the three parties in the coalition of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos postponed on Tuesday what had been billed as a crunch meeting because of missing paperwork, according to one official...
Unions staged a 24-hour strike on Tuesday, and protesters tussled with police outside parliament, chanting: “No to mediaeval labour conditions!”
"Damn I miss that sock pet....."
Don't worry, there's plenty of sock puppets on hcn.
sum luk wrote:
Only if you want to give me gag gifts on my birthday...
New weapon of mass destruction found...
YouTube - Raw Video: Marshmallow Launch at the White House Science Fair
Elvis wrote:
"Mean people", IIRC.
I assume the sequel was "Median people".
JP wrote:
Ruthless People. Hank Paulsen had a cameo as a naked rat mole, IIRC.
energyecon wrote:
That is what it is - a way to store wind energy or other overload electricity for later. I hadn't thought of that - knew about H2 but to go one step farther to CH4 - surprised me. Not familiar with the process.
Anyway - thought of you immediately - just more CH4!
Read yesterday from a link Shill posted - Halliburton shutting down offices in VA - my guess was they are laying down rigs big time in Marcellus. Yes/no?
Have a good day if we don't 'chat'.
I can't imagine paying 18%+ on a floating CRE. Oh wait I did that.
David Carter Found Dead In Foreclosed Home As Many As Four Years After Suicide (VIDEO)
"The body of the owner David Carter was found on the stairs in a "nearly skeletonized" state after being left there undiscovered for what investigators believe to be up to four years, The Daily Mail reports.
Carter, whose friends and acquaintances described as "smart and generous," even "funny," quit his job as a nuisance control officer for the City of Milwaukee in 2007, telling co-workers that he planned to move to New Mexico, according to the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. Instead, it appears that Carter committed suicide. He was found with a bullet wound through his head and a handgun on his chest the day that he would have turned 45 years old."
dryfly wrote:
That A3 at 1:25 in the vid is actually restyled from the current A3 2012 sold in the US. But doesnt look like the EU model. Weird. Supposedly, the A3 will be a sedan in the US for 2013. Sad.
I think the first units the 'rents bought,even with 20% down,were in the 9% range.
Less down was even higher.
Chris
dryfly wrote:
Oh yes, that is going on as we speak... hadn't seen that bit about the Halliborg yet.
Cobradriver wrote:
We had 30%+ down in the game. Still came out a great money maker.
Elvis wrote:
Ah, right. Ruthless People (1986) - IMDb
Hank was uncredited it seems.
Maybe Apple will open a factory in Greece.
dryfly wrote:
How is sodium hydride storage progressing?
I just posted a book recommendation: Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
yuan wrote:
Too bad Olive isn't a big computer/entertainment company. It would be a no brainer.
Santorum went three for three last night. This primary is turning into a Grand Old Lemon Party!
Where the hell is everybody?
Gary wrote:
Didn't you get the memo? Economy on the mend, back to work...
Gary wrote:
Got predictions about the landslide numbers for Obama in November? Then again, as they say about rethuglicans: They don't fall in love with their candidate, they fall in line.
QE3 remains on the table, Fed's Williams says - MarketWatch
shill wrote:
QE3 is the table.
http://rlv.zcache.com/bitches_print-rbd85a2d6313d4eb29d426b29f7009342_ai328_400.jpg
Rob Dawg wrote:
Sounds caustic.
Well flammable, and then caustic
"NaH can ignite in air, especially upon contact with water to release hydrogen, which is also flammable. Hydrolysis converts NaH into sodium hydroxide (NaOH), a caustic base."
Sodium hydride - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SPOOL wrote:
QE4 is the floor under the table.
Elvis wrote:
Easier to huff a cow.
SPOOL wrote:
So, already priced in?
scone wrote:
familyblogfamilyblogfamilyblog
Here come the Quadrocopters:
Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress
Has cooking with numbers become boring? Trying to make water flow up hill isn't going to happen but try they will. Illusion is not building a solid based economy.
ac wrote:
Those warrantless searches don't authorize themselves. Oh.. wait.
The agency projects that 30,000 drones could be in the nation’s skies by 2020.
Even Orwell didn't think of that one.
Has cooking with numbers become boring? Trying to make water flow up hill isn't going to happen but try they will. Illusion is not building a solid based economy.
Exactly. What's there to talk about? It's like trying to watch old Taxi re-runs. B-double-o-boring.
Too many eyes are on the ECB. Otherwise, they would just dump all the worthless, fraud ridden crapola debts on the ECB and hand out shiny new euros.
You know the Ben Bernanke super off balance sheet special purpose we will worry about it later scam.
Or maybe the world has awakened to the criminal central banksters racket? naw
All this jerking around is crushing the real economy. But me, and maybe three others on this board seem to see that.
The real money is in selling
.
ac wrote:
Job of the future.
Need to open a trainng school.
Offer certification
Use military ranges for training
Wonder what the pay scale will be for drone drivers.
Also need life feed vid analysis.
Dispatchers to send on the ground troops / cops.
Report writers
Section supervisors
Lots of jobs.
josap wrote:
... Double Double -- The Absolute Simplest Look at Wages and Pensions | Angry Bear - Financial and Economic Commentary
Unless they are fortunate enough to live in a rent stabilized apartment -- probably not enough to live in NYC.
It is a racket for sure. And your correct the real money is selling or has sold..Volumes tell all.
josap wrote:
Nah. Playstation/Wii/Xbox has been laying the groundwork for years.
In fact, there was a recent Beavis and Butthead episode which showed the boys running drones for the US military. (Season 9, Ep. 3 "Drones" )
What with Idiocracy, Mike Judge might be our age's Orwell.
josap wrote:
Video gaming has pretrained operators for free. Highest scores gets the job. Apply on line.
josap wrote:
There's an interesting newly induced PTSD problem...
Not having even the minimal separation of time and distance from battle (deployment) is ___________. (insert orwellian adjective)
Turns out wasting people and then sitting down for dinner a couple hours later with the kids drives you nuts.
Go figure.
ac wrote:
Time to invest in personal rocket launchers.
i
Obama is just itching to go into Syria.
scone wrote:
Do they have any ( Cough ) gold ( Cough )
scone wrote:
What! You don't have yours yet?
scone wrote:
Estes Rockets
My neighbor customized one of these when we were kids. Several "booster" rockets were strapped to the original design. We were never sure where that rocket landed.
sum luk wrote:
I suspect they could find the control module regardless, so obviously you don't want to be there for the counterstrike, if that's the word I want.
Comrade Janošik wrote:
Are you kidding? It takes me six months to pick out a handbag! I've been trying to pick out a bathtub for almost a year. I need a support group.
Ill tell you where the rocket landed you son of a bitch
http://images.wikia.com/wikiality/images/2/28/RocketInMoonsEye.jpg
scone wrote:
I'm more in favor of large foam blocks shaped as a single upturned finger. With todays optics, I don't see how they could miss it.
In a world of lawyers and liability, I'm astounded those guys still exist.
I'm also ecstatic that they still exist.
2 charts
Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate (LNU01300000) - FRED - St. Louis Fed
St. Louis Fed: Series: EMRATIO, Civilian Employment-Population Ratio
So as not to disappoint Pavel...
Greece Debt Deal Near
And don't forget...
It's Halftime in America
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is readying plans for parliamentary votes on a bailout for Greece as soon as next week, the deputy floor leader of Merkel’s party said.
Sorry folks the DRAMA has been discontinued until Monday, but possibly Tuesday, or more likely Wednesday and could carry on until Thursday, which brings us too Friday and well its the weekend so nothing gets done on Fridays...
Gold Increased In Value In Both Extreme Inflationary And Deflationary Scenarios - Credit Suisse & LBS Research | ZeroHedge