My New Blog

If you are looking for a Mortgage Professional who will give you the type of service that you deserve, contact Bob Amato (NMLS # 8632) and Empire Home Mortgage Inc. (NMLS # 44882). We answer our phones seven days a week until 9PM. Put us to the test! Our toll free number is (866) 742-5227.

 Visit our website, www.empirehomemortgageinc.com . There you can get answers to all of your financing questions, view rates and search for foreclosed properties.

 If you are considering locking in an interest rate for a New York mortgage or a Florida mortgage, read this post.

Thursday’s bond market opened in positive territory again despite a rebound in stocks. The major stock indexes are showing gains this morning, but have not recovered all of yesterday’s losses. The Dow is currently up 67 points while the Nasdaq has gained 5 points. The bond market is currently up 9/32, which should improve this morning’s mortgage rates by approximately .250 of a discount point.

May's Housing Starts was posted early this morning, revealing a much larger increase in new construction starts of homes than many had thought. Today’s reports revealed that new permits issued, which is an indication of future housing starts, stood at a 5-month high last month. That points towards strength in the new home portion of the housing sector. However, this data usually does not carry much significance and was not enough of a surprise to offset this morning’s stock weakness.

The Labor Department said this morning that 414,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week, down from the previous week’s revised total of 430,000 and fewer than forecasts. This is negative news for the bond market because it hints at a strengthening employment sector. Although, this is only a single week’s worth of new claims data, so its influence on mortgage rates has been fairly minimal.

Tomorrow also has two relevant economic reports scheduled for release that may impact mortgage rates. Both of these reports will be posted during late morning trading with the first being June’s preliminary reading to the University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment. This index measures consumer willingness to spend and usually has a moderate impact on the financial markets. It is expected to show a reading of 73.5. A smaller than expected reading would be considered good news for bonds because it would mean that surveyed consumers were less optimistic about their own financial situations than thought. That often means they are less likely to make large purchases in the near future, but since this report is only moderately important it likely will not influence mortgage rates considerably.

May's Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) will close out the week’s data tomorrow. The Conference Board, who is a New York-based business research group, will post this data. It attempts to predict economic activity over the next three to six months. Good news for mortgage rates would be a decline in this index, but it is expected to show a 0.4% increase.

If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would.... Lock if my closing was taking place within 7 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 21 and 60 days... Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from now... This is only my opinion of what I would do if I were financing a home. It is only an opinion and cannot be guaranteed to be in the best interest of all/any other borrowers.

Empire Home Mortgage Inc is a registered Mortgage Broker with the NYS and Florida banking Departments and our loans are arranged through third party providers.

http://activerain.com/images/linking/ARLogoProfile.gif