Will The Fed Act Again?

Well, the Federal Reserve Committee will meet once again on Wednesday October 31st. What will they do; keep rates unchanged, 1/4 point reduction, 1/2 point reduction? Time will tell but most analyst (80%) are predicting at least a .25% reduction and some think perhaps another half .50% will be taken and needed.

For the first time in a long time the continued housing slump and credit crunch is really making an adverse impact on our overall economic market. Just today Merrill Lynch announced that it would be forced to "write-down" over $7.9B; most of which was due to the housing crisis and the delinquency attached to it. Also, announced today was the "national" existing home sales report which reflected the lowest level in almost 8 years.

Add to the above the dilemma concerning record gas prices, increased unemployment, higher utility costs and this does not make for a healthy economy. It seems even the market is expecting further Federal help has today's 30 year mortgage rates are 6.125% down over .25% from a week ago. However, the problem is not mortgage rates or our nationally high inventory of homes. Rates could be at 3.0% but if buyer's cannot access the money to utilize the rate, what difference does it make! The credit crunch needs to be addressed, loans that could be done 1-2 years ago are now no longer available. Now with that being said, I am not a proponent of opening the flood gates of Sub-Prime and Alt-A products like we saw toward the late 90's. However, there are "tweaks" we can do to our product offerings that I believe will help "qualified" borrowers. For example; stated income loans with some verified assets, good scores and some reserves should be made available again. Also, some sub-prime (i.e. 600+ fico's, full-doc, 95% ltv) there is a need and market for this product. The problem with the above is that investors of these types of loans have gotten burned and pulled out of the market. What is needed to get them back?

Brought to you by Professional Mortgage Group
Your Columbia Missouri Mortgage Broker

Helpful Links

The whole purpose for Professional Mortgage Group, Inc. to publish this blog on www.pmg-inc.net is to provide useful information to visitors. Each day we provide valuable information and insight into the current market in Columbia, MO and sometimes Nationwide. It has been quite awhile since we did a refresher on some of the valuable websites out there that can be of assistance to you. I will just give a quick rundown of several sites that may be useful to you.

www.pmg-inc.net - Our website of course!
www.google.com - You can find anything on this powerful search engine.
www.gocolumbiamo.com - The City of Columbia website.
www.missouri.edu - The University of Missouri
www.zillow.com - Real Estate Valuations
www.bankrate.com - Rate and Lending comparison site.
www.realtor.com - Search for home for sale.
www.fanniemae.com - They are the largest buyer of securitized mortgage paper.
www.freddiemac.com - Another large buyer of mortgage paper.
www.bloomberg.com/markets/rates - Check Mortgage and Bond rates.
www.countrywide.com - Large Nationwide Lender
www.wellsfargo.com - Large Nationwide Lender
www.bankofamerica.com - Large Nationwide Lender and Bank with local branches.
www.realestatebook.com - Another site for home listings.
www.boonebank.com - Boone County National Bank Website. Largest local bank.
www.fnb-columbia.com - First National Bank. Another large local bank.
www.pisinspections.com - Local Respected Home Inspector.
www.myfico.com - Information about credit scores.
www.annualcreditreport.com - Obtain a free credit report once a year.


Here are some links to Local Real Estate Companies

Re-max Boone Realty
House of Brokers
Plaza Real Estate Services
Central Missouri Real Estate LLC
Weichert Realtors (First Tier)
3D Realty
Reece and Nichols
Gaslight Properties
Century 21 Advantage

These are several links to browse for information.
PMG hopes this information can be useful to you.

If you have a link that you think should be on this list, please post a comment and we can add it.

Brought to you by:
Professional Mortgage Group, Inc.
"Your Columbia, MO Mortgage Broker"