European debt worries and disappointing economic news sent investors to the safe haven of the bond market. Successful Treasury auctions showed these folks weren't worried about U.S. debt.
The FNMA 4.0% bond we follow ended the week UP .09, at $100.28. National average rates on fixed-rate mortgages, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey, are at or near lows for the year.
(So much for QE2 ending and sending mortgage rates higher - once again showing that Conventional Wisdom and herd instinct is often just plain wrong.)
From my weekly enewsletter INSIDE LENDING, for real estate pros, July 18, 2011
The word of the week was "debt" as investors worried about both Italy's sovereign debt problems and the inability of the politicians in Washington to get to agreement on raising the U.S. debt ceiling. With these uncertainties, stocks wobbled off their high perch and all three indexes sank for the week, the broad-based S&P 500 down 2%.
The FOMC Minutes from the Fed's last meeting revealed a divided committee. Some officials feel the central bank "might have to consider providing additional monetary stimulus" if the recovery remains slow.
Others think inflation threats could cause them "to begin removing policy accommodation sooner." Tracking inflation, the June Core Consumer Price Index (CPI) was up a little more than expected, but consumers weren't that put off, as June Retail Sales were up a tick for the month and up 8.1% from a year ago.
For the week, the Dow ended down 1.4%, to 12480; the S&P 500 was down 2.1%, to 1316; and the Nasdaq was down 2.4%, to 2790.
From my weekly enewsletter INSIDE LENDING, for real estate pros, July 18, 2011
Increasingly, the wrong thing for consumers to do is to stay out of the housing market.
In many locales, owning a home is now less expensive than renting. Rents are rising and vacancies falling, according to a report that tracked leasing data across the country.
For the second quarter, rents rose in all but two of 82 markets, while vacancies dropped in 72 of them, sending the vacancy rate to 6%, its lowest level since 2008. Another report showed rental listing prices up 6.7% nationally in June versus a year ago.
Meanwhile, national average mortgage rates got pushed down some more, thanks to the prior week's disappointing jobs report.
And the Mortgage Bankers Association reported demand for purchase loans was at about the same level as a year ago, although down a tad from the week before.
From my weekly enewsletter INSIDE LENDING, for real estate pros, July 18, 2011
Fed Chairman Bernanke still feels the recovery needs all the help it can get, so economists expect he'll keep the Funds Rate at its super low level a bit longer. Note: In the lower chart, a 1% probability of change is a 99% certainty the rate will stay the same.
Current Fed Funds Rate: 0%-0.25%
| After FOMC meeting on: | Consensus |
| Aug 9 | 0%-0.25% |
| Sep 20 | 0%-0.25% |
| Nov 2 | 0%-0.25% |
Probability of change from current policy:
| After FOMC meeting on: | Consensus |
| Aug 9 | <1% |
| Sep 20 | <1% |
| Nov 2 | <1% |
From my weekly enewsletter INSIDE LENDING, for real estate pros, July 18, 2011
| Date | Time (ET) | Release | For | Consensus | Prior | Impact |
| Tu Jul 19 |
08:30 | Housing Starts | Jun | 570K | 560K | Moderate |
| Tu Jul 19 |
08:30 | Building Permits | Jun | 609K | 609K | Moderate |
| W Jul 20 |
10:00 | Existing Home Sales | Jun | 4.93M | 4.81M | Moderate |
| W Jul 20 |
10:30 | Crude Inventories | 7/16 | NA | -3.124M | Moderate |
| Th Jul 21 |
08:30 | Initial Unemployment Claims | 7/16 | 411K | 405K | Moderate |
| Th Jul 21 |
08:30 | Continuing Unemployment Claims | 7/9 | 3.700M | 3.727M | Moderate |
| Th Jul 21 |
11:00 | Philadelphia Fed Index | Jul | 0.0 | -7.70 | HIGH |
| Th Jul 21 |
08:30 | Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) Index | Jun | 0.3% | 0.8% | Moderate |
From my weekly enewsletter INSIDE LENDING, for real estate pros, July 18, 2011
Communications and marketing expert, helping real estate firms and agents enhance their image, impress their clients, expand their markets and increase their business.
Kevin Hawkins is an award-winning public relations and marketing professional with more than 20 years of experience working in corporate and agency environments in fields including technology, financial services and real estate industries. Kevin has a proven track record of working at best-in-class Fortune 500 companies, assisting senior executive management and the leadership of marketing and sales divisions grow revenue and increase efficiencies, while gaining market share and expanding brand awareness. He also is a technology-centric innovator and early online adopter who helped to launch and grow a prolific Internet start-up, which was purchased by a group of media corporations seeking to expand its online advertising footprint.
An expert strategist who leads organizations in implementing a full-range of public relations/marketing tactics, Kevin has built a solid reputation in the real estate services industry as one of the most reliable and responsive sources for working journalists, including serving as a front-line senior spokesperson for a Fortune 100 Company.
For example, at Fannie Mae, Kevin produced and implemented programs to support the marketing of Fannie Mae products and services to lenders, investors, consumers, Realtors, and the news media. He co-managed the firm’s media relations activities for local Home-Buying Fairs in cities across the U.S. as part of its “Opening Doors” housing affordability campaign. Fannie Mae was then named by Fortune magazine as the country’s “Most Admired” financial institution. Kevin launched Fannie Mae’s first Hispanic Public Relations program and he was an integral part of the firm’s massively publicized and highly successful “$1 Trillion Initiative.” The launch garnered front-page coverage in major market newspapers across the country, including the lead story on the front page of USA Today, which Kevin secured.
Always an executive level contributor, Kevin’s leadership helped to secure first-round venture capital funding for the strategic launch of an Internet startup (HomeGain.com), which was purchased by Classified Ventures. Media giants A. H. BELO CORP., Gannett Company Inc., The McClatchy Company, Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company, own classified Ventures. At HomeGain and its then sister company Inman News, Kevin was a member of the executive management team and served as Director of Marketing for both companies. Together, Kevin help both companies achieve record growth. At Inman News, Kevin helped launch Real Estate Connect, serving as an Executive Producer as well as the marketing and sales manager for the real estate industry’s leading technology trade show. Kevin also created Homeradio.com with real estate author Tom Kelly, and together they broadcasted the first Internet radio daily real estate news show on such websites as inman.com and car.org and provided “how to” video content for Microsoft HomeAdvisor, its first real estate portal.
Among his accomplishments, Kevin is a polished public speaker and frequently published freelance writer. Kevin has spoken often to Realtor Associations, both in his capacity at Great Western Financial and Fannie Mae. Kevin has been a featured guest speaker at trade association meetings and class lecturer at college campuses on such topics “Digital Tools for PR Pros” and “Agency v. Corporate PR: Which Path is Best for You?”
As a writer, Kevin authored more than 70 major feature stories and leadership profiles of CEOs at real estate, software, and online firms for Real Estate Technology and California Real Estate magazines, which reached more than 100,000 real estate professionals. For Great Western Bank (now CHASE), Kevin authored the nation’s first "How to Shop for a Loan" and "How to Shop for Home" comprehensive guides for consumers, requested by more than 1 million homebuyers. He also scripted the industry’s first “How to” videos for consumers and Realtors; created the nation’s first Realty Confidence Index, an in-person survey of leading broker-owners nationwide and was the editor of the award-winning Real Estate USA, America’s leading newsletter for real estate professionals.
Kevin’s leadership skills transcend the communication field and include executive management positions. He was appointed as the youngest Vice President at Great Western and at Fannie Mae and was the first corporate employee appointed as a Director of a Partnership Office, where he opened and managed the firm’s first office in Washington State in Seattle. Working with more than two-dozen Puget Sound area partners, Kevin was responsible for the $1.5 billion "HouseSeattle" program created under then Seattle Mayor Norm Rice. The Seattle King County Board of Realtors honored him for his work with the Realtor community and then Fannie Mae Chairman Jim Johnson personally commended Kevin for his work in helping to mobilize Realtors statewide to stop a homeownership tax, which had been making its way through Congress.
For 8 years, Kevin honed his marketing skills to support Realtors in the field, serving as a consultant and providing home financing services at top local banks, including Sterling Savings Bank, CHASE and Wells Fargo.
Today, Kevin is Senior Dir. of Corporate Communications and Marketing at Imprev, Inc., based in Bellevue, WA. Imprev is a leading marketing technology corporation providing personalized Marketing Centers to help real estate firms and agents enhance their image, impress their clients, expand their markets and increase their business.
Imprev provides private-label Marketing Centers and systems for real estate giants RE/MAX, Royal LePage, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, and Keller Williams, as well as top regional firms that include Jenny Pruitt & Associates, Prudential Georgia, Prudential Northwest, and Realty World Northern California & Nevada. Imprev-powered Marketing Centers provide more than 200,000 real estate agents with total marketing solutions including virtual tours, multimedia presentations, flyers, postcards, newsletters, video and much more, selecting from Imprev’s library of thousands of ad agency quality design options. Agents access Imprev’s cloud-based software to create, store, distribute and track personalized print, multimedia, HTML, email and video-based designs with point-and-click ease.
As a long-time resident of Bainbridge Island, Kevin has served in many volunteer capacities including as a baseball, soccer and basketball coach and nonprofit board member, and today serves on the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation Board and is a member of the local Chamber. He began his longtime philanthropic involvement in Los Angeles with Love Is Feeding Everyone, founded by actors Dennis Weaver and Valerie Harper. He is the father of two teenage boys and married to Kyanne Hawkins, who is the new office manager at Blakely Elementary School on Bainbridge and is well-known as an active volunteer in the community.
An honors graduate of the University of Miami (Florida) in 1981, Kevin completed his Master studies at the University of Southern California's School of Journalism in 1985.
> Technology and financial services media relations
> Technology empowered Marketing & Public Relations
> Leveraging Social Media Tactics
> Clever, breakthrough-style marketing strategies
> Blogging
“Kevin is an exceptional PR pro whose energy and insight was highly valued by senior and executive management. He successfully directed our public relations efforts that supported the company's biggest business, Single Family Marketing. He always brought a high level of creativity to projects, whether working individually or as part of a team. I am happy to give Kevin my unequivocal recommendation.” May 13, 2011
Alfred King Director, Public Affairs, Fannie Mae
worked directly with Kevin at Fannie Mae (Headquarters)
Alfred is now Director of Public Relations at Genworth Mortgage Insurance, the world's largest Mortgage Insurance firm.
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