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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.

 This week’s FOMC meeting has adjourned with no change to key short term interest rates. This was widely expected but the other Fed news did bring some surprises. The Fed revised their outlook for economic growth downward, meaning the economy is expanding at slower pace than what they previously estimated. They also announced that they expect to keep key interest rates at their current levels until late 2014, indicating long term concern for the economy.

 This news was well received by the financial markets.

 Today’s 5 year Treasury Note auction went very well, helping to fuel bond buying. However, the Fed news is the catalyst for this afternoon’s gains. We get to do this one again tomorrow though when 7 year Notes are sold. Tomorrow’s securities are closer in term to mortgage bonds, so you can argue that they are more important to mortgage rates then today’s were. However, traders seem to have a bigger reaction to the first of the two sales, so it often takes a much stronger or weaker demand than the initial sale for the second one to have a noticeable impact on mortgage rates. Results of tomorrow’s sale will also be posted at 1:00 PM ET.

 Tomorrow morning brings us the release of three monthly economic reports along with weekly unemployment figures. The first is December's Durable Goods Orders at 8:30 AM ET. This data helps us measure manufacturing strength by tracking new orders at U.S. factories for products that are expected to last three or more years, also known as big ticket items. The data often is quite volatile from month to month, but is currently expected to show an increase in orders of approximately 2.0%. A smaller than expected increase would be considered good news for bonds and mortgage rates, but a slight variance likely will have little impact on mortgage pricing due to its reputation of being volatile.

 The Labor Department will give us last week’s unemployment figures early tomorrow morning. They are expected to announce that 375,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week, up from the previous week’s 352,000. That would make the data favorable for the bond market and mortgage pricing because it would point towards a weakening employment sector. The larger the number of initial claims, the better the news for mortgage rates.

 Next is December's New Home Sales report at 10:00 AM ET. It is considered to be the sister release to last week's Existing Home Sales, giving us a small snapshot of housing sector strength. It tracks a much smaller portion of home sales than last week’s report did and is forecasted to show an increase in sales of newly constructed homes. However, this data is not important enough to heavily influence mortgage pricing unless it varies greatly from forecasts.

 The fourth piece of economic data is December’s Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) at 10:00 AM ET. The LEI attempts to measure economic activity over the next three to six months. It is considered to be of moderate importance to the bond and mortgage markets. Analysts are currently expecting the Conference Board to post a 0.7% increase, meaning that economic growth over the next few months will likely rise fairly quickly. Generally speaking, this would be bad news for the bond market because a strengthening economy makes long term securities such as mortgage bonds less attractive to investors.

 If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would.... Lock if my closing was taking place within 7 days... Float if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days... Float 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 New York and Florida State Banking Departments and our loans are arranged through third party providers.

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