“Following last week’s euphoria over the European Summit plan, investors are
in a more skeptical mood this week,” said BMO Capital Markets. “In our view,
while the plan will help contain the risk of a European banking crisis and
financial contagion to other countries, it falls well short of resolving the
crisis.”

So Treasuries are starting off the day stronger as more investors are seeking
safety over riskier stocks.  This will allow us to see a little bit of
improvement in rates today.

Rate
update.  Remember these are start rates…credit score, LTV, and other factors
go into final rate.

30yr
Fixed rate 4.125%  APR 4.229%

15 yr
Fixed rate 3.5%  APR 3.765%

5/1 Arm
3.125%   APR 3.207%

30 yr
FHA Fixed 3.75%  APR 4.113%

Have a
fun and safe Halloween!

Chris Blount
Branch Manager
Integrity Mortgage/AES Lending

Courtesy Jeff Dicks Real Estate

Raleigh Homes Market Update

Do you know that the best time to post things to Facebook is 8am in the
morning?  What surprises me is that one of the worst times is 3pm.

Anyways,
on to Obama’s proposed refi program.  By the sounds of it this program might be
the ticket to getting a lot of people who are underwater refinanced.  The
question is will the guidelines be relaxed enough to allow borrowers to refi and
it make sense.  Remember in order to qualify for this program your loan will
have to be owned by Fannie or Freddie and it was transferred to them before May
31 2009.  So in other words if you bought or refinanced since May 31 2009 then
your loan will not qualify.  The final details will be out Nov 15th so I will
follow up once we get that info.  In the mean time you can check to see if your
mortgage is owned by either enterprise by going to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac

In
other news the roller coaster continues in the markets.  After the EU meeting
yesterday they agreed to boost the bailout fund and struck a deal with private
banks to accept a 50% loss on Greek bonds…Wow!.  So even though job numbers
are not the greatest and earnings reports have been so so, just knowing EU looks
like they are on track to get their problem under control gave markets a nice
warm fuzzy feeling.  With that said, Stocks are up and bonds are down so rates
are back on the higher end today at 4.25% on a 30 yr fixed….more than likely
they will increase to 4.375% by end of day.  Until the next big announcement
comes it looks like we will be treading on the higher end of our rate
outlook.

Chris Blount AES Lending

Courtesy of Jeff Dicks Real Estate

As lending standards have tightened and household incomes have shrunk, many Americans have been increasingly turning to the rental market for at least a temporary fix. Landlords are recognizing the increasing demand with higher rents.

The New York Times reported last week that the average Manhattan rent in September was US$3,331, up 6% from $3,131 a year ago and an 11% increase from 2009 when it as $3,013. The vacancy rate in Manhattan is close to 1%.

“Across New York, rents have not only rebounded from the depths of two years ago, but are also surpassing the record high of 2007 during the real estate boom,” said the New York Times report.

For some perspective, the latest average rent for a two bedroom unit in Canada was $839 in April, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, up 2.2% from a year earlier.

The New York Times used data from CitiHabitats, which also revealed some larger trends in the rental market. In the last quarter, just 5% of leases reviewed included concessions such as free rent or payment of broker fees, compared to 23% of leases a year earlier.

New York is not the only city to see such increases, however. Chicago saw rent hikes of 7% in 2010, and this year rents are expected to rise a similar amount, according to a forecast by Appraisal Research Counselors. Rental rates rose in every one of the 82 U.S. markets tracked by Reis Inc. this year, other than Las Vegas, while the national vacancy rate sunk below 2006 levels for the first time to reach 5.6%.

-Source Canadian Real Estate Magazine- Editorial Team