Former Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, is writing a book about his role within the US economy. To my surprise, the book starts on Chapter 11.

It was the last day of the month and lending professionals everywhere were scrambling to fund loans. Lock volume continues to be strong and successful companies have made it clear that limiting fall out is critical to survival. I guess the old days of hedging your locks with one investor and floating with another are over, but as the industry continues to evolve, I expect to see more lenders charging upfront lock fees and employing other client retention strategies to keep their clients from straying.

After a seemingly long wait, Fannie Mae has announced that it will begin purchasing the new high balance loans of $729,750.00 for loan closings of May 1st and later. While the pricing of this long awaited "Jumbo Conforming" product is still TBD, the entire industry has our fingers crossed hopping for the best. My guess is that investors will figure out what to charge over the next month or so, but if recent changes to the overall lending system are of any indication, I would expect these loans to fall relatively in line with current $625K pricing. Fannie has revised loan-to-value ratios for certain loan types, implemented new minimum credit score requirements, and added additional appraisal requirements. (And no, I don’t know what they are, but hope for the best and expect the worst) More on this as information becomes available…

With all of the wonderful economic news circulating out there, it is hard to believe that rates could go up much in the near future. The Stock Market remains volatile to say the least and inflation threats are virtually nonexistent (at least for now). The Mortgage Bankers Association's applications index rose by 3% in the week ending March 27th. The purchase applications index was basically unchanged, and refinance index gained about 3.7 percent.

Ryan Ogata
Senior Mortgage Consultant