Mortgage Market Update

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day.  I can say that those in the real estate or lending industry had plenty to be thankful for heading into the long weekend.  After the Feds announcement last week among other things, to purchase mortgage backed securities, mortgage rates dropped.  Rates on Wednesday were the lowest we had seen since January.  As I stated in my post "Help For Main Street", there have been many recent announcements that have caused moments of opportunity for those looking to for purchase financing or those looking to refinance.  However, the volatility of the market has caused these moments to last for just a day or two.

Heading into a new week, we opened the market in positive territory this morning.  It looks like this moment of opportunity may be extended past the one or two day norm.  I'm certain that with the talk of our "slowing economy" or "recession", we'll need more than just a few days of low mortgage rates to stimulate our housing market.  As the week progresses we'll see if this is simply another moment of "opportunity" or if it is a trend to stimulate our struggling housing market.

You're probably wondering the story behind the two pictures above and how in the world it may pertain to the mortgage market.  On Thanksgiving morning I took Wyatt (my dog) for a walk around the block.  I returned to the awesome sight of a shattered window from someone breaking into our car (among four others in my neighborhood) on Thanksgiving eve.  My father-in-law was kind enough to help me vacuum up the glass as we were nearing our lunch time with the family.  Knowing the Oregon weather, we knew it was necessary to find a cover for the window.  He mentioned, "do you have one of those signs from church?".  So I dug our Merry CHRISTmas sign out of the garage and thus the remedy.  Despite the broken window on our newer van we were able to make the most of the opportunity to share the simple sign that represents the true meaning of Christmas.  So far that is the extent of our Christmas decorating!