Lock Your Interest Rate Now
If you have a loan in process and you will be closing within 30 days, it is time to lock. I believe that this is one of the typical Decembers where rates will go up. Economic forces are part of it, gas prices have climbed since the election, even the dollar is having its part.
Along with economic forces December is the time of year that most mortgage employees are encouraged to take their vacations. The market is slower and that is when management can afford its processors, funders, document departments, etc. to take time off. With that in the mix, it is less a priority to be quoting low rates.
My advice – lock now. Larry Cragun
Lifted from Larry’s most excellent Mortgages Undressed Blog
I would like to add to this that home prices are lower than they were in January and so are interet rates. With so many houses available my advice is to buy a home or an investment property.
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I am honored you picked up on this. Lar
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But Lar, I am a fan!
Teresa
I am not sure if that is the best logic for purchasing a home or investment property…
Funny that he didn’t substantiate his opinion with any hard facts…
Personally, the Fed is going to hold still if not go down in the next several months…which should impact mortgage rates. Also due to the current market conditions, I would think the competition in the mortgage business is higher than ever because there are so few buyers/refinancers out there.
Hi John and Teresa, Not knowing what Johns life is like professionally makes it difficult to respond. I found a John Daly loan officer through Google, but his site is childish, that can’t be our John here.
I will respond however – John please surface and tell us if you are a lender, ok?
I write to people borrowing or buying real estate. I appreciate all who drop by however.
With that in mind what are you saying you would tell the consumer? You have three choices: You should lock, you should float, or you should decide on your own. I hear a lot of lenders claim they do the third choice, I think it unlikely though you would offer no opinion.
So with your disputing my position, lock, I would say this to you. If you are telling the consumer to not lock, I challenge you. I will post yesterdays rates. I specified if you are closing within 30 days. That would be the last week of December, a terrible time to close. So lets say you and I are advising someone who is closing as a Christmas present: December 23rd. If you surface and accept the challenge I will send Teresa a prize, you do the same. The winner gets the prize.
I say I am right.
Here is what I don’t like about your comment. “the Fed is going to hold still if not go down in the next several months…which should impact mortgage rates” You don’t know that. If you did, you would be playing the market not reading posts. Also, I did give facts: The rise in rates will be tied to the uncertainty of the market place and the concern about inflation. The dollar and gas prices are a concern. Fed officers have recently voiced concern over inflation.
I am willing to carry on more dialog, I bet you are not. I hope on that I am wrong, this could be fun. Lar
Thanks to you both for the comments. John, I want you to know that I take home buying seriously. For people who had planned on buying a home in the twin cities and are currently looking this may very well be the best time to buy.
Larry – thanks for your comment. I just figured out that Mr. Daly did not leave a correct email address, making me doubt that he will come back to read your response. Also if he has never read you before he may not know that you are what I call a reliable source. I know who you are so if you tell me this is a good time to lock I don’t question it.
Hi Teresa and John and the world of Teresa’s viewers. For the sake of my challenge to John I am going to post what it called a par rate. This is the rate where I don’t pay points or get a rebate. From that rate people pay all the costs including points. That rate on the day I posted the article is 5.75%.
John not giving a real email and disclosing more about his career inspired a new article I just posted on MortgagesUndressed.com
Lar
Sorry, I didn’t make it clear in the comment above. The 5.75% par rate I posted is for a 30 year fixed rate, a 30 day lock, with a conventional loan. (A loan qualified to be sold to Fannie or Freddy)
Where is John Daly? Who is John Daly? Really?
Easy there Larry…
Amazing response for such a simple statement. My opinion would be to float…I believe mortgage rates will continue to decline short-term but I am certainly not a mortgage banker…just active in real estate.
Theresa is head-on that it is a good time for buyers. The reason I thought it was interesting was the sentiment behind the suggestion to buy a home or investment property (buyers market means you should buy). It becomes almost an impulse purchase because you think you are getting a good deal, but are you?
Anyways, Larry you get way too pumped up over this stuff than I do. Good side is Theresa got lots more page views because of it. Nice follow-on article
Classy response John. This has caused me to start a few follow up articles to follow. I do think it is risky to float. I hope their is some valuable commentary to come. Lar