Posted To: The Garrett Watts Report

This was the half time scene in Miami last night at Super Bowl XLIV… I am sure many watchers were thinking: Why The Who? Maybe some of us in our 60s and 70s need to be “put out to pasture” or start “whittling wood” on the front porch. However, as a boomer, I was inspired to see these guys still rocking and rolling. I enjoyed the music and hope they keep playing. Peter Townsend will go down as one of most brilliant musical writers of all time. That’s enough about The Who and dating myself. Lets’ talk about secondary market and locking loans. One of the areas we review during our FOCIS-plus Studies is whether a company has a centralized lock process. Centralizing the lock function means all lock requests and confirmations are managed by a “gate keeper”…(read more)

Posted To: MBS Commentary

The market is duller than a Colts victory parade at the moment. We're dealing with a fairly standard issue "calm before the storm" that we often see on a data-limited Monday when the rest of the week contains the more significant events. The supportive trends we began to note in the last post have continued to foster a narrow range of prices with almost perfectly flat directional movement. In other words, the simple existence of a "narrow range" doesn't always mean prices aren't moving. We can see narrow ranges while still moving DIRECTIONALLY. For instance, even on a 16 tick rally, if the subsequent highs and lows are only a tick or two higher than their previous marks, the line on the chart would be fairly smooth yet still be very much higher at the end of…(read more)

Generally, laws differ from one state to another. However, some states have corresponding laws that could help you a lot in dealing with foreclosure.

Some financial advisors will tell you that stocks would be a much better investment and return a greater return on your money. What is the reason a financial advisor would tell you this?

Posted To: MBS Commentary

As AQ pointed out this morning, today's slightly downward trend in MBS price began in the final hours of Friday's trading. Both MBS and Treasuries put in their best marks of the day just before 2pm, and have moved steadily downward ever since. You may notice, however, that both markets appear to be losing that negative steam near current levels. For Treasuries, that looks to be around 3.60 and for MBS, around 101-08. At the moment, the Fannie 4.5 is a tick higher than that at 101-09, but is still 5 ticks lower from Friday's closing prices. All that being said, the more important trends to watch pertain to the generally supportive range for MBS that emerged even before Friday's boomy rally. AQ pointed this out as well, and it remains pertinent at the moment. You can see on Thursday…(read more)

Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch

Who Dat!!!! Congratulations to New Orleans on a well played and exciting Super Bowl victory. Mortgage rate moved a few basis points lower on Friday following the Employment Situation Report . While we have seen scattered day over day streaks of improvements, mortgages rates have failed to fall lower than 4.75% in 2010. To remind readers, as mortgage-backed securities prices move higher in price lenders are able to pass along better rates. After what seemed like a steady flow of important economic data and market moving headline news last week, the data schedule slows down in the days ahead, but headline news is always a possibility. In terms of scheduled events, no economic reports are being released today or tomorrow. On Tuesday we have the first of three mortgage rate influential Treasury…(read more)

Negotiating for a lower property price is highly advisable, even if the foreclosed property already goes for an attractive price. So how can you get a really great deal? Read more to find out.

Well 2009 is in the books and I want to put a stamp on exactly how Long Island house prices faired throughout the course of the year. The stats for Long Island house prices in 2009 may surprise many people. There’s one very clear message from the stats that I want to share right away and that is, we are in “the trough”.

House repossession can be stopped if you make the right decision at the right time. In fact even if you have got a repossession notice, you can still go ahead and stop repossession. Read on to know how.

Many people who fall behind on their mortgage payments believe they are stuck with no options and they will lose their home. That is not true and more people should be made aware of a new government program that helps homeowners who have fallen behind in their payments. It is called the hardship loan modification and it allows the homeowner to negotiate a new mortgage with their lender with much more affordable terms.