It’s February 24th and the J. Berman Group is gearing up for a busier than usual March. Two factors will likely push consumers to make some decisions on home financing sooner rather than later. The first factor is the dramatic change in compensation for mortgage originators effective April 1st, 2011. This regulation will undoubtedly raise [...]
Read More compensation, middle eastMortgage markets rallied for most of last week, but ended Friday on a sour note. After touching their lowest levels since Memorial Day, mortgage rates spiked to close out the week. Despite pricing getting worse by 1/4 percent Friday afternoon, however, mortgage rates still managed to fall for the second consecutive week. There were two main [...]
Read More Case-Shiller, Interest RatesThe Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate within its target range of 0.000-0.250 percent. It also reiterated plans to support the mortgage market to the tune of $1.5 trillion. In its press release, the FOMC noted that the U.S. economy is “picking up following its severe downturn” and that financial markets [...]
Read MoreThe Federal Open Market Committee starts a 2-day meeting today in Washington. The scheduled get-together ends at 2:15 PM ET Wednesday after which the FOMC will issue a press release to the markets. Consider locking your mortgage in advance of the press release. The FOMC meets 8 times annually and its adjournments are among the biggest [...]
Read More Federal ReserveAfter improving in the two prior weeks, mortgage markets finished last week unchanged overall. Mortgage rates were down early in the week but managed to give up all of their gains late-Friday afternoon. It’s the same volatility variety we’ve seen in most weeks this year. Markets moved on to both positive- and negative-type news last week. [...]
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