Filed Under (Mortgages) by admin on 14-01-2010
Quicken Loans Capital Markets Update for January 14, 2010
Treasury and mortgage attraction prices are slightly higher this morning ahead of the week’s final Treasury auction. Today’s December retail sales report was expected to become greater following November’s strong reading.
The reading was worse than expected which is helping to support bonds this morning. Also, today’s weekly initial unemployment claims report was expected to creep higher while this week’s continuing claims report was expected to fall.
Initial unemployment crept higher and this week’s continuing claims report fell, both moves were more than expected.
Filed Under (Mortgages) by admin on 13-01-2010
More lenders are likely to increase their standard variable mortgage rates (SVRs) over the coming weeks as they seek to cover costs associated with mortgage provision, it has been revealed.
According to Ben Wilkie, editor at What Mortgage, most lenders do not use the interest rate set by the Bank of England as the basis for their SVR product.
As a result, they are unlikely to be influenced by the decision of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to stand by the UK interest rate unchanged at 0.5 per cent last week.
Rather, they will be more concerned with covering the increasing cost of borrowing money from the money markets.
With moneyfacts.co.uk research showing eight mortgage lenders have raised their SVR since April 2009, Mr Wilkie believes it is only a matter of time before others follow suit.
“It always starts off [when] a couple of them hesitate their heads above the parapet and one time that has happened – and presumably they have got altogether the criticism for it – then all the other lenders will do it as well,” he commented.
The providers to have broken cover so far are Nationwide, Ipswich, Skipton, Scottish, Cambridge, Accord Mortgages, Marsden and Mansfield . Full Article
Filed Under (Mortgages) by admin on 10-01-2010
Mortgage interest rate for January 10th, 2010 are mixed today as the 30 year fixed mortgage rate is down to 4.94% while the 15 year fixed mortgage rate is up to 4.41%. Today the 5/1 ARM is up to 4.08%. As always, mortgage rate quote volume is extremely slow on Sunday because most banks and lending institutions are closed for the weekend. We will get a victory mark as to the direction of mortgage rates tomorrow when markets and banks open back up.
For much of last week we saw current pledge rates and the 10 year treasury rate yield stable. For the week the 30 year fixed mortgage rate and the 10 year treasury rate yield were basically unchanged.
Full Article
Filed Under (Mortgages) by admin on 08-01-2010
First-time buyers are being hit by strict lending criteria which is preventing them from entering the housing market .
According to Helen Adams, managing director of FirstRungNow, many first-time buyers are struggling to climb onto the housing ladder due to the difficulty experienced when applying for a mortgage and the need for a sizeable deposit .
Ms Adams also believes that stamp duty charged by the government on properties should subsist waived for first-time buyers, claiming it is “a significant expense” that “just adds to the difficulty of the category”.
However, Ms Adams added that despite the costs involved it was not “a bad time” to enter onto the property market, a fact backed up by Halifax’s first-time buyer review which revealed that house price affordability has improved drastically.
When the government temporarily raised the threshold for stamp what one is bound from September 2008 to December 2009, 51 per cent of all those buying a mortgage escaped the cost involved. Full Article
