Hey there it’s Bruce Woodburn with CrossCountry Mortgage and WDBO radio “Ask The Experts” with another one of your weekly three big things you need to know. I hope that the information that I pass on to you is valuable whether you’re purchasing a home, refinancing or you just want to know the current economic status of what’s going on. I think is valuable to you as a consumer and definitely valuable if you’re a real estate agent or in the real estate business at all. But to me it’s important to all of us because it affects all of us. Here is the reality. If my business is doing well, then likely your business is doing well. If my business isn’t doing well, things are probably not going so well because the mortgage industry is a direct indicator of how things move, now and in the future. So you guys always want me to do well in my business. That’s great, I appreciate that very much because it’s going to help you in your business. So if people are getting mortgages, refinancing and purchasing homes, then it means more people are back to work and it means more people are buying cars, fixing up their homes, buying appliances, doing everything and spending money, which stimulates the economy. All right, that’s a side note, that’s not my three big things you need to know. Here they are.

1. First big thing you need to know. Orange County has reopened down payment assistance. So if you are seeking some type of down payment assistance or would like to see if you qualify for any of the programs that Orange County is rereleased, there is not an infinite amount of money and you always want to make sure that you get preapproved for down payment assistance with me and my team before you ever go to a class. So many times I see people attend these down payment assistance classes and they get a certificate and then find out later that they don’t meet the requirements for it. The class doesn’t teach that I teach that. Down payment assistance for you realtors or clients that have the desire to seek to see if that’s available for them, call me because Orange County reopened up. It probably means that I’m going to start seeing some other counties reopen the DPA Programs, just stay tuned to my three big things you need to know and I’ll keep you informed of that. Alright.
2. Second big thing you need to know. I am currently in what’s called a floating bias on interest rates. This means that I don’t think, immediately, we’re going to see a sharp increase in interest rates. So if you haven’t locked in yet and you’re closing in 23 months, maybe new construction, then you’re probably going to be okay. I always say probably, we don’t know whether that’s going to be the case or not. But if you’re closing within the next 30 days, I don’t recommend you float because at the same time I’m in a floating bias, it’s also an extremely volatile market right now. So you don’t have room to recover if rates pop up in one week and they can easily do that. So keep that in mind.
3. Then the third big thing you need to know. So you know what keeps interest rates down all the time is what’s going on in the bond market now. As you know, the federal government has been purchasing bonds like crazy, and that has artificially lowered your interest rates. If you think your interest rates right now are the way they really should be in a normal market, You know that’s not true. So they’re artificially down to keep the market stimulated. So the Fed announced, and you got my three big things you need to know, I keep you informed of this, that the Fed was looking at tapering their purchase of mortgage-backed securities, meaning they’re going to reduce the amount that they’re going to buy. And they were going to reduce it by $10 billion per month. Well, next month they are purchasing $4.89 billion mortgage-backed securities. But their news is that they’re going to taper, meaning they’re going to reduce how much they’re going to continue to invest in in mortgage backed securities. I don’t think that that’s going to happen. And I’ll tell you why, if you look at other economic news and you want to trust people like Bank of America is saying they’re going to taper. Here’s why Bruce doesn’t think they’re going to taper. Okay, now, am I a financial expert? No, am I a Harvard graduate? No, I’m not. I’m just Bruce the mortgage dude. But here’s what I am. I am watching markets for you all day every day and there’s a lot of things I’m not too smart about, but I know my market and I’m gonna tell you why, I don’t believe that they’re going to taper. You’ve got Afghanistan, you’ve got the whole Kabul thing. We don’t even know when that’s going to end. It’s horrendous. But there is no end in sight. But if that’s bad news, that might be good news for you when it comes to mortgage rates. So if the Fed does not decide to taper because they’re afraid that the economy is going to go to hell in a handbasket that could be good for you. And I think they have threatened to taper that’s going to drive rates up, but they’re not going to taper. That’s my opinion, Bruce Woodburn, CrossCountry Mortgage and WDBO “Ask The Experts”.

I hope that you find this information valuable and put me to the test. I’m okay with that. I look forward to helping you and your family with all your mortgage transactions. Anything I can do to help. I’m there to do it. I hope that all my real estate agents listening to this right now, find value in it and you can convey the same information on to your clients so you can become a trusted partner as well. Thank you for the opportunity to help you, and I look forward to seeing you again next week on the three big things you need to know.