Staten Island Local Real Estate Market Conditions
Blogroll
Realty Check
Staten Island in Real Time
-
Recent Posts
- Mortgage rates continue to descend this week on Euro concerns.
- Revolution on NBC…It looks compelling, is it the next reality show?
- Track your Staten Island bus…. The MTA has a technology upgrade.
- Is dreaming about that perfect real estate transaction possible….Maybe!
- A Beautiful Colonial Home Come Up For Sale in Tottenville. (130 Craig Ave.)
Archives
Categories
- Annadale
- Arden Heights
- Arrochar
- Bay Ridge
- Bay Terrace
- Brighton Beach
- Brooklyn
- Bulls Head
- Clifton
- Clove Lake
- Co-op
- Commercial Real Estate
- Condos
- Dongan Hills
- Dongan Hills Colony
- Eltingville
- Ft. Wadsworth
- Graniteville
- Grant City
- Grasmere
- Great Kills
- Heartland Village
- History
- Home for Sale
- Home Value
- Housing Market
- Howell
- Huguenot
- Hurricane Irene
- Listings
- Luxury Homes
- Midland Beach
- Neighborhoods
- New Dorp
- New Jersey
- New York
- News
- Open House
- Park Slope
- Port Richmond
- Price Reduction
- Princes Bay
- Real Estate
- Realty Check
- Rosebank
- Rossville
- Sales Data
- Sheepshead Bay
- Silver Lake
- South Beach
- Southeast Annadale
- Special Report
- St. George
- Staten Island
- Staten Island Mortgage Rate Report
- Staten Island Real Estate Market
- Sunnyside
- Sunset Hill
- Tottenville
- Trending
- Uncategorized
- Weather
- Westerleigh
- Willowbrook
- Woodrow
Trending Tags
10301 10303 10304 10305 10306 10307 10308 10309 10310 10312 10314 Affordable Homes Baden Pl. Bloomingdale Rd. Colonial Home Condo detached Detached Home Evacuation FHA HARP Program Home for Sale Home sales Hurricane Information Just Listed Kerry DeBellis Latest Interest Rates Luxury Home Manchester Dr. Mary Ann Benevento DeMagistris Mortgage rates Mortgage Trends Near Verrazano Bridge new on the market New York Hurricane History Recent home sales Semi single family Stats Storms Storm Surge Two Family Upton St. Valerie Bartolone Waterfront Home
Category Archives: Staten Island Mortgage Rate Report
As we can see, this week the mortgage rates are volatile. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped again to a new record low of 3.97%. The 15-year fixed mortgage rate stayed the same as last week, at 3.20%. The 5-year adjustable mortgage rate increased to 3%.
As Europe continues to have trouble with their debt crisis, many people are investing more in the U.S. Treasury bonds. As demand for U.S. Treasury bonds increases, the yield of it decreases. On Tuesday, May 15th, the 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield dropped to 1.75%, which is the lowest it has been since October 2011. Mortg
age rates tend to follow the same trend as U.S. Treasury bond yields, so if there continues to be demand for U.S. Treasury bonds, the mortgage rates will most likely stay low and around where they are now.
With rates the way they have been the past few weeks, the amount of mortgage applications being put in is increasing. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the amount of mortgage applications put in last week was 9.2% higher than the week before. Does this mean better results for home sales? The answer in short is, not really. The reason…of the mortgage applications being put in last week, 74.9% of them were refinance applications. However, the increase overall in volume should help housing a little bit. As for how much it will help, we’ll see in the next quarter.
Even though the United States economy is slightly improving, the first quarter numbers in several key economic indicators are weakening. The main indicator of concern is, the Job market has stalled and that has investors hedging their risks with treasuries. Consequently, mortgage rates follow suit with treasury yields on the decline.
Until the European debt crisis gets closer to being resolved (if ever) and the job market sees some robust growth, mortgage rates will most likely stay around where they are for now.
Mortgage rates have fallen to new record lows again this week, in all three mortgage programs. The 30-year fixed rate fell to 4.02%. The 15-year fixed rate fell to 3.20%. The 5-year adjustable rate fell to 2.99%. Mortgage rates have been on the decline over the past month. This is due to the United States’ economic status and the European debt crisis.
The United States’ economic growth situation has actually been slowing down lately. The unemployment rate was not where it was expected to be until recently. Along with the unemployment rate, the consumer spending is not where it was expected to be either. Consumer spending not being where it was expected shows that the economic growth is not moving at the speed the Fed would like.
The European debt crisis has moved from Greece to now Spain. Greece was keeping the 
mortgage rates down for a while until they avoided default on their loans. Spain is now in the forefront of the European debt crisis. Along with Spain, the European Central Bank is watching Ireland, Italy, and Portugal to make sure there is no other big debt crisis in these countries.
With the U.S. economy not recovering and the European debt crisis, people want a safe place to put their money. The United States Treasury bonds have been the safest place for investors lately. When people invest in U.S. Treasury bonds, the yields on those bonds fall since there is a high demand for them. This plays a role with the mortgage rates, since the mortgage rates tend to follow the U.S. Treasury yield rates. Mortgage rates will continue to follow the U.S. Treasury yields and with people wanting to invest in them, mortgage rates will most likely stay low for a while.
Read more
Mortgage rates dropped again this week, surprisingly. The 30-year fixed rate and the 15-year fixed rate both fell to record lows. The 30-year fixed rate is at 4.09% and the 15-year fixed rate is at 3.28%. The 5-year adjustable rate dropped to 3.03% this week, which is one hundredth of a percent above the record low of 3.02% on February 2, 2012. These drops are mostly due to the Federal Open Market Committee, but also have to do with the European debt crisis.
The Federal Open Market Committee met on Wednesday, April 25th, to discuss its policies. The Fed stated that they want to achieve maximum employment and price 
stability to help the economic growth, so they are taking an accommodative stance for monetary policy. At the policy meeting they decided to continue putting money back into mortgage-backed securities. Besides reinvesting in mortgage-backed securities, they are going to keep the federal funds rate between zero and a quarter percent, as well as some other policies to help the economic recovery. Both of these policies are helping keep mortgage rates low.
Europe is still going through their debt crisis and most likely won’t be settled for a while. Since Europe is still having problems, investors have been investing their money in U.S. Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed bonds. As long as people continue to invest in these bonds, the yield will stay low or fall. Mortgage rates tend to go with the curve of the yield, so if they stay low, so will mortgage rates for the most part.
With the rates dropping for the third week in a row, they will most likely stay around where they are now. Until the economy starts to recover and the European debt crisis starts to dissolve rates will not be spiking too high in the near future.
Read more
Mortgage rates barely moved this week. The 30-year fixed rate dropped back down to the record low of 4.10%. The 30-year fixed rate has only hit this low twice before this week; first on February 15th and second on February 29th. The 15-year fixed rate didn’t change from last week and is still at 3.32%. The 5-year adjustable rate increased from 3.03% to 3.05%. These slight changes in the mortgage rates are due to the European debt crisis in Spain and also the amount of refinance applications that came through last week.
The European debt crisis doesn’t seem to be getting resolved any time soon, which has been helping to keep the mortgage rates on the low side. More recently Spain and Italy have been the countries that are having debt problems at this time. Spain had an auction for two and ten-year debt on Thursday April 19th. These auctions are a short term fix for the country and investors are still worrying about the long term. Since there are concerns still with the European debt crisis investors want a safe place to put their money. The Federal Reserve had bought back Treasury bonds to help lower the Treasury 10-year note yield to below 2 percent.
When the mortgage rates dropped last week homeowners took advantage of the lower rates and refinanced their mortgages. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the amount of refinance applications that came in last week was up 13.5% from the previous week. Of these refinance applications, 32% of them were for HARP 2.0 loans. While refinance applications went up, the amount of homebuyer mortgage applications went down 11.2% last week. This decrease in mortgage applications was mostly due to the decrease in FHA loans by 23%. The insurance premiums on FHA loans have increased last week to 1.7%, which is why the FHA loan applications went down.
Mortgage rates should be staying on the low end for a while to help the housing market. If the mortgage rates do start to increase rapidly, it could slow the housing market down. If you are going to refinance or apply for a mortgage, now would be the time to do it since rates are near record lows and will most likely not stay there for a while.
Read more
Mortgage rates have made significant drops to near or at record lows for this week. The 30-year fixed rate hit the record low on February 29th at 4.10%; today, the 30-year fixed rate is at 4.11%. The 15-year fixed rate hit a new record low at 3.32% this week. The 5-year adjustable rate hit record low, as well, on February 1st at 3.02%; today, the 5-year adjustable rate is at 3.03%. These substantial drops are due to the debt crisis in Europe with Spain and Italy and the latest job report disappointment.
The drops are mostly due to the Spain and Italy debt crisis coming back. Investors
Read more
Mortgage rates moved just slightly this week. While the 30-year fixed rate and the 5-year adjustable rate increased, the 15-year fixed rate decreased. The 30-year fixed rate rose to 4.25%, the 15-year fixed rate fell to 3.42%, and the 5-year adjustable rate rose to 3.15%. These little movements are due to the Fed’s minutes released.
On Tuesday, April 3rd, the Federal Open Committee Meeting released the minutes from their last meeting on March 13th. With the economy not yet recovered investors, anticipated that the Fed would be purchasing more government and mortgage bonds to help keep the mortgage rates low. But with the way the minutes went it seems that many of the Fed members are staying away from purchasing more bonds and want to leave the economy alone to let it stand on its own.
With the Fed no longer buying government and mortgage bonds we will start to see the mortgage rates become more volatile from now on. For homebuyers who want to lock rates now before they start to increase a lot, it is a good idea. Another idea would be to talk to your lender and ask about renegotiation policies, in case the rate does go down, so you can still get the lowest rate.
With mortgage rates being low and home prices being low, a lot of people are buying more than last year. Compared to two weeks ago, mortgage applications have increased 4.8% last week. Now, with the volatility that is going to be happening in the coming weeks, there may be an even bigger increase in mortgage applications and refinance applications.
Read more
Mortgage rates have surprisingly dropped this week, after two weeks of them rising. The 30-year fixed rate dropped to 4.23% and the 15-year fixed rate dropped to 3.44%. The 5-year adjustable rate dropped the most to 3.14%. Since last week, there has been some unexpected downturn in the economy reports, causing rates to lower again.
Last week investors were taking their money out of the Federal Reserve Treasury Bonds and putting it back into the stock market, causing the rates to rise. The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, had an interview on television this past Tuesday, on March 27th, which caused consumer confidence in the economic recovery to drop. During the interview, he said, “We haven’t quite got to the point where we can be completely confident that we’re on track to a full recovery.”
With the rising gas prices and the inflation in the economy, the Consumer Confidence Index has decreased to 70.2 for March, which is a 1.4 point drop since February. The housing market is another factor affecting the economy. The prices of homes continue to drop, as well as the amount of homes being sold. In January, the price of homes had dropped 3.8 percent, according to the 20-city Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index report that was released Tuesday, March 27th. Even though the Realtors Index decreased 0.5 percent in February, it is still better than a year ago.
With the volatility of the mortgage rates, homebuyers and homeowners have been holding off on applying for a mortgage or for a refinance. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, there was a 2.7 percent decline in mortgage applications last week, compared to the prior week. The amount of refinance applications, dropped as well, by 4.6 percent from the prior week. This is the sixth week in a row that the amount of refinance applications has dropped.
With all of the economic uncertainty, the mortgage rates will most likely be volatile over the coming weeks. Waiting may not be the best solution while rates are still low right now. You may want to lock in the rates now so you don’t end up with a higher rate in the end.
Read more
Mortgage rates are continuing to climb this week. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased the most this week, up 0.14%, making it 4.29%. The 15-year fixed rate and the 5-year adjustable rate both increased 0.10%, making them 3.48% and 3.24%, respectively. These increases this week are due to the United States economy improving and the European debt crisis easing.
As talked about last week, the U.S. economy has seemed to be improving. All of the economic data reports that have been coming out have shown a positive outlook on the economy. Another factor affecting the mortgage rates is the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. When the mortgage rates were at the record lows, the 10-year Treasury note yield 
was also low, close to 2 percent. This week the 10-year Treasury note yield increased to 2.38%, which is the highest it has been in five months. Since investors see that the crisis is easing they are no longer investing in the U.S. Treasury bonds, which is a reason they are going up. But this doesn’t mean that the crisis is actually over yet. The European leaders have to follow through with their policies and plans for them to be completely out of the water.
The higher mortgage rates have affected the amount of mortgages being applied for. The raise last week caused the amount of applications to drop by 7.4% from the previous week. Many homebuyers want the lowest rate they can get on a mortgage. With the rising rates the past two weeks, they may be waiting for the rates to drop again. Waiting is most likely not in their best interest though, since rates will most likely not go much lower than what they are now.
The National Association of Realtors released their report on sales of previously owned homes on March 21st. The report showed that the sales of previously owned home has dropped in February, 0.9% from January. This shows that the housing market is still shaky, even though it is up 8.8% from February 2011.
Read more
This week the 30- and 15-year fixed mortgage rates increased by 0.04%, making them 4.15% and 3.38%, respectively. The 5-year adjustable rate had a bigger jump, by increasing 0.11%, making it 3.14%. These increases are due to the good economic news that has been released this past week. The items released this week were the employment summary, retail sales report, Federal Open Market Committee report, bank strength, and the stock market. Each sector showing the economy is slowly, but steadily improving. What this leaves us with is, increasing mortgage interest rates. As investors see an improving Wall St. the shift from fixed income products like the 10 Treasury note, which is heavily correlated with mortgage interest rates, to equities or for what’s better known as corporate stock.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Employment Situation Summary for February on March 9th. They stated that 227,000 jobs were filled in February, even though the unemployment rate remained the same, at 8.3 percent. Another thing that the report stated was that the labor market has been improving for the past three months. Since there seems to be an upward moving trend in the labor market people are gaining more confidence in the job market, which gives a significant boost to another key statistic consumer confidence.
On March 13th the Department of Commerce released their Retail Sales report for February. Retail sales have increased by 1.1 percent from January. This is good news because this is the biggest jump in sales for the past five months and it is also up 6.5 percent from February 2011.
The Federal Open Market Committee met on March 13th, giving another positive outlook for the economy. They show the improvements in the labor market, household spending, and business fixed investments. With these improvements the Committee is expecting to see economic growth over time and a decline in the unemployment rate. To help with the economic recovery the committee wants to keep an accommodative stance for monetary policy.
The Federal Reserve has been conducting stress tests for banks to see how they would be able to handle another economic crisis. The Federal Reserve uses a hypothetical economic scenario to gauge if the banks would have enough capital to operate normally, as well as to continue lending money to consumers and businesses. Nineteen banks were tested with this system and out of those, fifteen passed the test. This test has shown consumers that the banks are becoming more financially sound now. The Federal Reserve has been conducting stress test on banks since the advent of “The Great Recession” in 2008. With the loans becoming defunct during that crises, so was bank liquidity the Fed wanted a clear indication that improving liquidity would abate a serious meltdown of the banking industry.
With all of the confidence in the economy, investors have started putting money back into the stock market and taking it out of the bond market. Again, This can be shown with the Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and S&P all increasing over the past week. This alone will start to increase the mortgage rates since there is less money going into the safe Treasury Bonds.
As for the homeowners who have been waiting for HARP 2.0 to come, the wait is over. Updates to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac systems will be completed this weekend and then borrowers can start applying to refinance under this program.
With all of these economic improvements, the consumers are gaining more confidence and we should start to see mortgage rates increase over the next few weeks. The good thing is that they will most likely not sky rocket upwards, but we could see them hitting close to 5% in a couple of months. With this being said, the best thing would be to lock rates in now before they rise any higher. If you need to refinance now would be a good time to do it while the rates are on the lower side.
Read more
This week mortgage rates only moved slightly by 0.01 percent. The 30-year fixed rate has increased by 0.01 percent to bring it to 4.11%. The 15-year fixed and the 5-year adjustable rates both decreased by 0.01 percent, making them 3.34% and 3.03% respectively. The rates stayed stable this week due to Greece’s debt and the government creating a new refinance program for FHA loans.
As Greece tries to get out of debt, many people are nervous that they will actually end up defaulting on the debt this month. This will allow people to still invest in the safe U.S. Treasury bonds, which in return allow mortgage rates to stay low.
The government has created a new refinance program for FHA loans, called the FHA’s streamline program. This program is for borrowers who are up to date on their mortgage payments and have loans that were given out before June 2009. The streamline program will allow FHA fees to be reduced by more than half. This is great for borrowers since many times people wouldn’t refinance because of the high fees. Two benefits to this program are that there is minimal documentation needed and that there doesn’t need to be a new appraisal on the house. This program will go into effect in June.
For everyone who has been anxiously waiting, HARP 2.0 will be going into effect next week, March 16th. For those who are not sure, HARP 2.0 is a refinance program for borrowers with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans, and who are having trouble paying their mortgage. With all the people who are behind on their mortgages many of them will be trying for a refinance through HARP 2.0–especially now, with the low rates. This will create a delay in the mortgage process, whether you have a new application or a refinance.
Mortgage rates will most likely stay where they are for the time being. With the government trying to help homeowners out of hard times the rates won’t be shifting too far. But if Greece does default on its debt then we might actually see rates drop further.
Read more