Well everyone, we can all release that breath we’ve cumulatively been holding: the Home Affordable Refinance Program’s second coming is upon us. St. Paddy’s Day was the official release of the program updates to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s respective automated underwriting systems.
Those are the great big machines that tell all the mortgage underwriters what to do. I believe that they’re called SkyNet in the Terminator movies.
But it’s happening. For realzies. Oooooooone little catch. Lender overlays.
Lemme break it down for ya. Uncle Sam can say he wants X, Y and Z, but lenders can turn around and decide only X and Z fit their risk-appetite. And that leaves Y high and dry and unimplemented. So, in an instance like this where we’re having lenders lend WAY more than the underlying assets are worth, there can be some lenders that prove to be more gun-shy than others.
Why do I mention this? Because I’m a broker. And that gives me obscene amounts of flexibility in my choice of lenders. So whomever happens to come forth with the best and most widely applicable interpretation of the government’s guidelines, you can bet your grandma’s dentures that we’ll be on it and sending applications on through that channel.
And grandma needs those dentures.
So, the fact is while the program’s birthing process is underway you can get your application in and working. That way you’re at the front of the line when the mad stampede for the front door happens.
In other news, a somewhat unexpected string of upbeat events roiled markets and lit a fire under the stock market, causing it to extend an already impressive rally. Sadly, what’s good for stocks tends to be problematic for maintaining low interest rates. So, a good jobs report (added 227,000 jobs), Ben Bernanke changing his language on the economy’s growth from ‘modest’ to ‘moderate’ growth (yes, that one word actually moved markets), an overall success in the latest iteration of bank stress tests (I would prefer we do these by sticking CEOs on treadmills and making them chase a dollar bill hanging from the end of a plunger on their forehead) and Apple’s new iPad being such a huge seller (big shock there) all made rates take a multi-pronged whack.
Don’t get me wrong. Rates are still down there. But it is cause for consideration. As our economy gets healthier, interest rates are gonna rise and demand is going to come right back with it. And you can’t say we didn’t try to let you know that good things were coming.
Facebook looks to target mobile devices with advertisements as a driver behind it’s next growth surge. Because it went public and is now in need of constant growth to satisfy their new legion of shareholders. Ads on mobile devices are really, really annoying. Annoying to the point of possibly driving away users en masse. While we’re on the subject, go ahead and search your deleted e-mail items (I know you have the technology to do this and I don’t think you save my newsletters) for my 2/5/2012 newsletter and read the second paragraph. G’head. I’ll wait here.
...I WAS SO RIGHT!!! I WIN THE ‘I AM RIGHT’ GAME!!! Shower me with praise and/or a Nobel prize for awesomeness! And it only took just over a month to happen. Sometimes it hurts to be this good. Not often though.
But seriously. If you haven’t called me to talk about refinancing yet, you should feel bad. Really really bad. Think of all the SPCA shelters you could sponsor with your monthly savings. Sarah McLachlan would love you forever.
Make Sarah McLachlan happy. Call me and refinance. For the homeless puppies.
