1. What’s going on in the real estate market right now, things have actually gotten a little better in terms of less offers on the table. We were down to a three month supply of inventory. We’re now up to a full month. Okay. That’s not that big of a deal. We’re still not even close to a balanced market, but it’s better than it was. And that’s an improvement. That means instead of having 15 offers on the property, we may have 3-5. Okay, so things are starting to settle down. I think you’re starting to see your lumber prices settle down as well. Okay.
2. Next thing you need to know is what is going on with interest rates right now. Well, Wednesday was a rocky day. We started off up nine basis points on the bond market and immediately our little friend Powell, the Fed chairman, announced some hawkish news about tapering. You guys hear me talk about tapering all the time, tapering means that the Fed is going to quit purchasing mortgage backed securities. They were buying $10 billion a month and they’re down to about 4.6 and they’re saying they’re going down even even more. So you got to realize the only reason you’re interest rates are so low is because the Fed’s buying mortgage backed securities. When they quit doing that, interest rates are going up. So he announced that we’re going to continue tapering and Wednesday, what happened? The rates went up. So, if you haven’t refinanced or you haven’t locked in on your purchase, if you’re closing within the next 30 – 45 days, you definitely want to be locked in right now. We could improve, we could start to get a little bit more of what we lost on Wednesday, we’ll see how that plays out. But when the Fed announces some type of tapering, it’s going to affect the market pretty considerably.
3. The third big thing you need to know, this is really, cool. So this is for all of you real estate agents out there, my builder representatives, my Hanover Family Builders and friends. Jumbos. If you are looking to get a mortgage and that mortgage is exceeding $1,085,000 you are into the jumbo arena and my jumbo interest rates are phenomenal. You put 20% down and I was locking rates in the high twos, okay, two and 3/4 on a 30 year fixed rate, incredible interest rates. But I just came out with a new program, you’re not even gonna believe this when you hear it. So if you’re a real estate agent, you got to write this down because you’re going to think that it’s shenanigans and it ain’t no shenanigans. Okay, so at CrossCountry Mortgage we just came up with a new jumbo program, 3.5% down. You heard me 3.5% down. Now, you’ve got to have good credit scores, you’ve got to be over 720 minimum for this program. You have to have 24 months in reserves, which is way more than the typical six months reserves on a Jumbo. But listen to this, I’ve got rates in the mid to high threes with no PMI. Now granted you want to get the high twos and put your 20% down, no MI, it’s great. But when you can put 3.5% down up to a loan amount of $750,000 and your interest rate is under 4% and sometimes like the mid threes. Crazy stuff. Crazy stuff. I’m doing them.

Bruce Woodburn, The Loan Arranger at CrossCountry Mortgage. Get your clients over to me as quickly as you possibly can if you’ve got friends that haven’t bought yet, please get them over to me while rates are low, I don’t think anybody should be a renter anymore. There’s no reason for it. I will help them become a homeowner. If you have not re financed yet and your rate is somewhere in the fours, give me a call. You’re getting bombarded with phone calls from lenders right now. That will convince you to refinance. 50% of you probably shouldn’t refinance. I can show you a different alternative. However, statistically, according to recent stats, 81% of you that have a mortgage and are eligible to refinance that have not refinanced yet should refinance. Now granted today’s rates are a little bit higher than it was on Tuesday. But that’s okay. They’re still awesome. Bruce Woodburn with CrossCountry Mortgage and WDBO Radio. I hope that these announcements sit well with you. I hope that they’re giving you lots of information and I’m always looking forward to helping you and your clients, and your friends and family anytime they need financial information or a mortgage. Thanks. Have a great weekend