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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.

 Wednesday’s bond market opened up slightly despite early stock gains. The stock markets are showing moderate gains with the Dow up 61 points and the Nasdaq up 18 points. The bond market is currently up 4/32, but we will still likely see an increase in this morning’s mortgage rates of approximately .250 of a discount point over yesterday’s morning pricing due to weakness during afternoon trading yesterday.

There is no relevant government economic data scheduled for release today, but we do have the 7-year Treasury Note auction to watch. Results of the sale will be posted at 1:00 PM ET, so any reaction to it will come during afternoon hours. If it was met with a strong demand, we should see bond prices rise during afternoon trading and mortgage rates move lower. However, if the sale does not go well, we may see rates move higher later today.

The Labor Department will give us last week’s unemployment numbers early tomorrow morning. They are expected to say that 383,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week. This would be little change from the previous week and considered neutral for the bond market. The higher the number of new claims, the better the news for bonds and mortgage rates because it indicates weakness in the labor market. However, since this data tracks only a single week’s worth of new claims, it usually takes a wide variance from forecasts for this data to influence mortgage pricing.

February's Factory Orders will be released late tomorrow morning. This data is similar to last week's Durable Goods Orders report, except that this report includes orders for both durable and non-durable goods, giving us a measurement of manufacturing sector strength. It is also the least important of this week's five reports. Unless it varies greatly from forecasts of a 0.4% increase, I suspect that it will be a non-factor in the mortgage market.

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 Fl Banking Depts and our loans are arranged through third party providers.

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