James Wirth

Not exactly the way I wanted to come back from a holiday.

As much as I'd love to take the day off and watch the proceedings, I'm really just ready for everybody to get to work! Oh -- speaking of which --

On Friday mortgage rates worsened, but that was somewhat expected because historically when the market closes early in advance of a holiday, rates often worsen and then recover after the holiday.

NOT TODAY! Boy, they really showed me! Take that James! Ha!

5.125% Rate / 5.279% APR

P&I payment: $2,270.51

Loan amount: $417,000
Down payment/equity: 20%
Loan Program: 30 Year Fixed

We may have improved pricing today and if we do, I will post an update.

Thanks for reading! --James Wirth

This is a little off-topic of my normal posts...

With the lightning-speed distribution of news these days, most of us heard of the emergency crash-landing on the Hudson river within minutes of the event. After hearing that most survived, I breathed a sigh of relief and went on with my busy day.

The evening news carried additional accounts and confirmed that all pasengers and crew had survived, and again I was relieved, but didn't feel any real emotional connection or reaction.

Then on the radio this morning, listening to how the pilot made a daring choice to aim toward the river instead of divert to the airport as instructed; how the first ferry-turned-rescue crafts were pulling people on board within minutes of the landing; how the worst injuries sustained were two broken legs... it started to sink in.

Driving down I-405, not knowing a single person on board that plane and with no looming flight plans for myself or really anyone I know and for all intents and purposes no connection whatsoever to this event, my eyes welled up as I became, well, overwhelmed.

With the constant onslaught of dismal forecasts, disappointing economic releases and the Evening News (which is nearly impossible for me to watch because it's horribly disappointing), the shock that turned into hope that turned into the best possible outcome and flew in the face of an all too common event usually resulting in tragedy, gave me a real reason to celebrate humanity and life.

Ironically, they say 95.7% of passengers survive water-ditches such as this one. But for this event I'm not considering the statistics. The pilot pulled off an incredibly heroic landing that saved 155 lives including his own and, coupled with the incredibly fast rescue efforts from everyone involved, is nothing short of miraculous.

I welcome your thoughts on this event. It seems increasingly more significant to celebrate every one of life's victory.

Actually, I was referring to me or rather my lack of postings recently. I apologize for that!

Rates, too, are basically unchanged from my last rate update, where they were, well, basically unchanged: http://activerain.com/blogsview/870483/Mortgage-Rate-Update-Basically-Unchanged

The New York Fed continues to purchase Mortgage Backed Securities, gobbling up an additional $23B in their second week of the program. This in addition to report-after-report of negative economic new releases that historically is very rate-friendly (e.g. it panics the traders and they pull their money out of the stock market and stick it into bonds to protect it).

And yet, rates are basically unchanged. WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO!

Apparently "the market" has decided that since the moves by the Fed to stimulate a drop in rates is only temporary, they're not going to get too excited. Go figure.

In any case, mortgage rates are still at historic lows!

Need I say more?

--James Wirth

Well, maybe I should be careful what I wish for... rates are unchanged from my last mortgage rate update entry, Just click here to see where we are. This is the 3rd day in a row they've been at this rate.

In this case, I think I'm ok with mortgage rates just hanging out. The longer they stay at this level, the more likely they will continue downward, wouldn't you agree?

It remains to be seen whether we'll hit that 4.5%... no wait... now it's supposedly 3.99% on the 30-year Fixed Rate loan everyone has been talking about.

The New York Federal Reserve Bank initiated the new Mortgage Backed Security purchase program this week.

Announced several weeks ago, it was designed to push rates lower and stimulate the housing market and economy in general. Today they reported on their activities for the week -- they purchased over $10 Billion in mortgage backed securities (which, by the way is the amount I predicted they would purchase, thank you very much).

So check this out: I couldn't find the report for how much they purchased!

cnbc.com? Nope.

thestreet.com? Nada.

I had to go to http://www.newyorkfed.org in order to find the amount!

And you're, like, "No Way!"

And I'm all, "So WAY!"

And then you're all, "Like, totally OMG! That's so far out! I gotta twitter my bffs and give them the 411!"

I know. Crazy. No media coverage (at least that I saw, in my 4 minutes of searching. So yeah, rates didn't really move much today.

Thanks for reading! --James Wirth

Except for some jockeying around as far as who's going to be the most competitive or who's all full-up with new loan applications, lenders priced their rate sheets with the same rate as the day before -- more or less...

4.625% Rate / 4.773% APR

P&I payment: $2,143.96

Loan amount: $417,000
Down payment/equity: 20%
Loan Program: 30 Year Fixed

Rates are as of 1/7/09. Subject to change without notice. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Thanks for reading! --James Wirth