The Federal Reserve released its June 2011 Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes Tuesday. It contained no surprises and, as such, mortgage rates in Pennsylvania and New Jersey have idled in the hours since. The Fed Minutes is published 8 times annually, three weeks after each scheduled Federal Open Market Committee meeting. It’s the official log of the meeting’s conversations and debates. The Fed Minutes is the lengthier companion piece to the FOMC’s more well-known, post-meeting press release. As compared to the brief-and-focused press release,by comparison, the Fed Minutes are long and detailed. June’s press release was 458 words long. Its minutes totaled 6,889 words. The June minutes reveal some interesting perspectives from within the Federal Reserve, too. On growth : Econom...
Friday morning, at 8:30 AM ET, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its June Non-Farm Payrolls report. If you’re currently shopping for a mortgage, or floating a mortgage rate, be prepared. Mortgage rates can change following the monthly report’s release. Often, by a lot. More commonly called “the jobs report“, Non-Farm Payrolls reports on the U.S. workforce by sector, summarizing its findings in terms of total workforce size, and as a national Unemployment Rate. Jobs are considered a keystone in the continuing U.S. economic recovery. More working Americans means: 1. More consumer spending, a boost to businesses 2. More tax collection, a boost to governments 3. More personal savings, a boost to households For June, analysts expect the government to report 80,000 net new jobs created...
The Federal Open Market Committee starts a two-day meeting today, the third of its 8 scheduled meetings this year. The FOMC is a special, 12-person committee within the Federal Reserve. It’s led by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the group is responsible for voting on our nation’s monetary policy. This includes setting the Fed Funds Rate, the rate at which banks borrow money from each other overnight. The general public tends to confuse the Fed Funds Rate for “mortgage rates” but, as shown in the chart at top, the two interest rates are very different. There is no direct correlation between the Fed Funds Rate and everyday mortgage rates in Voorhees. Since 1990, the two benchmark rates have been separated by as much as 5.29 percent, and have been as close as 0.52 percent. Today, the separ...
A lot of Home Owners today have no idea what exactly is covered under their Home Owners Insurance Policy. Most of the time this is a last minute item that they pay for prior to their loan closing. A major misconception about these policies is that almost every repair that is needed is covered. This could not be any further from the truth. It is extremely important for you to have a full understanding about what EXACTLY is covered under your policy so you will have an idea of if you need to purchase any extra insurance to cover you in case any of these life events happen to you and your home. Repairs can be extremely expensive and can set you and your family back financially if you don’t not have the proper insurance. Below I would like to high light some items that you may believe are ...
Mortgage markets improved slightly through last week's holiday-shortened trading sessions. Better-than-expected housing data led mortgage rates higher Tuesday and Wednesday, but rates retreated Thursday morning in advance of Good Friday. Markets were closed Thursday afternoon and Friday. They re-open this morning. Conforming mortgage rates in New Jersey ended last week unchanged overall. It's a strange outcome considering that Standard & Poor's issued a downgrade on U.S. debt Monday. In most instances, a debt downgrade would lead investors away from a particular group of securities - in this case, a group that includes mortgage-backed bonds. However, Wall Street reacted in the opposite. When S&P issued its opinion, however, mortgage bonds rallied. Some say this is because the downgrade...
Home resales rose 4 percent last month, according to the March Existing Home Sales report. A total of 5.1 million homes were sold on an annualized, seasonally-adjusted basis. The strong results re-establish the national, long-term trend toward rising home resales. March marked the 6th month out of eight in which sales volume has increased and sales are up 32 percent from July 2010 lows. Home supply has resumed its downward trajectory, too. At the current pace of sales, the entire home resale inventory would be depleted in 8.4 months. This is 0.1 months faster as compared to February, and a full month faster than the 12-month average. The Existing Home Sales report also included a breakdown by buyer-type. First-time buyers bought 33% of homes, down from 34% in February Repeat buyers bou...
Foreclosure activity is much slower this year than last. According to foreclosure-tracking firm RealtyTrac, the number of national foreclosure filings plunged 35 percent in March 2011 as compared to March 2010, a statistic that reflects a more healthy housing market and more robust outlook for 2011. A “Foreclosure filing” is defined as any of the following : a default notice, a scheduled auction, or a bank repossessions. Foreclosures filings were down in all but 8 states last month. Activity remains concentrated, too. More than half of all bank repossessions can be tied to just a handful of states. In March, 6 states accounted for 51% of activity. California : 15% of all repossessions Florida : 9% of all repossessions Arizona : 7% of all repossessions Michigan : 7% of all repossessio...
