Category Archives: Mortgage Rates

Silicon Valley’s Crazy Market – Is it Better to Rent or Buy?

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Courtesy Tony Guaraldi, VP of Mortgage Lending

Is the market too crazy?  Should 1st time home buyers “rent for a while until the market slows down” and throw in the towel for now?  Does it still make sense to pay these home prices or are they better off renting right now?

Rent or Buy in Silicon Valley?

Rent or Buy in Silicon Valley?

The answer as to whether or not they should buy a home vs. renting when you look at the numbers is resoundingly YES!!!  Let’s take a look at this example in Campbell . . .

A current listing on the MLS today is 1360 Hoffman Ln Campbell, CA  which is a 3 bed / 2 bath with 1,331 square feet for the bargain price of $949,000.  The typical first time buyer starter home is now around 1M in Campbell.  If we look at Craig’s List for a similar place to rent this morning you can find 1638 Ensenada Dr, Campbell which is also a 3 bed / 2 bath house that is 1,284 square feet that is listed for rent at 3,600 per month. Continue reading →

Phenomenal Mortgage Rates for Silicon Valley Oct 10_2014

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Courtesy Tony Guaraldi, VP of Mortgage Lending Guaranteed Rate Mortgage

As you can see from the graph below Mortgage bonds are at their best levels in the past 12 months!  This means most lenders rate sheets will be at their best levels of the year right now.  Good time to take advantage of a refi for anyone who never got around to getting it done in the last cycle, those now enable to do so due to rising home values, or people getting towards the end of their ARM loans.

CLICK HERE for the Oct. 10, 2014 Mortgage Rate Sheet. Continue reading →

Silicon Valley Mortgage Update FICO Scores_Aug. 9, 2014

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Courtesy Tony Guaraldi Aug. 8, 2014

There are a few industry changes that we’ll discuss today including how Fannie Mae will treat people with a Short Sale in the past and a new FICO scoring model that will be implemented this fall.  The new FICO scoring model 9 will help many consumers with collections to improve their credit score and we’ll cover all the details on this.

CLICK HERE for the Best Mortgage Rates today.

First on the Short Sale/Pre-Foreclosure waiting time for borrowers who wish to buy another home after this derogatory event.  The current rule for Fannie Mae are that if the borrower puts 20% down payment the waiting time to buy or refinance after a Short Sale is two years.  Continue reading →

Silicon Valley Mortgage Rates June 13_2014

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Courtesy Tony Guaraldi, VP of Mortgage Lending Guaranteed Rate Mortgage

Are Interest Only loans coming back???  Well technically they never fully left the industry even after the mortgage market meltdown in 2008, but most people are unaware these programs still exist today.  However, there is only a small handful of lenders that offer the Interest Only programs today and they are nothing like “fog the mirror” test to qualify for them as it many people joked about prior to 2008.  In fact the Interest Only programs offered today are even more strict in terms of income, down payment, and credit requirements then their principal in interest counter parts.  Makes sense that underwriting would be more strict as the lender is taking more risk by not have principal reduced every month.

CLICK HERE for the current Friday Mortgage Rate Sheet effective June 13, 2014.  Continue reading →

Mortgage Rates May 9_2014 in Silicon Valley

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Courtesy Tony Guaraldi, VP of Mortgage Lending Guaranteed Rate Mortgage

CLICK HERE for the current Friday Mortgage Rate Sheet effective May 9, 2014.

As we had hoped Bonds continued to climb for most of the week.  As you can see from the below Bond prices are at their peak for 2014 which means rates are among the best available this year so far.  Continue reading →

Silicon Valley Mortgage Update_March 8, 2014

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Courtesy Tony Guaraldi, VP of Mortgage Lending Guaranteed Rate

Welcome to our Friday update. The Jobs report for February is out and it beat expectations coming in at 175,000 jobs created above expectations of 150,000.  Additionally there were upward revisions from the past two months reports of 25,000 additional jobs created.

CLICK HERE for the current mortgage rate sheet. Continue reading →

Mortgage Lending Changes and Rates – Jan. 10, 2014

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Courtesy Tony Guaraldi, VP of Mortgage Lending Guaranteed Rate Mortgage

Holly Guacamole!  We unexpected got a lousy jobs report this morning and Mortgage Bonds are the beneficiary!  The Bureau of Labor Statics reported the economy created 74,000 jobs missing huge on the forecasts that predicted a range of 200k to 250k jobs! For comparison the number for October was 200k created and November was 241k created so this was really out of left field!  The Jobs Report each month is always the biggest market mover and again its tied to Fed stimulus right now so reactions to the news are exacerbated for Mortgage Bonds.  You can see the large green box on the right of the chart below showing the bond market rally today but you can also see we are a long ways off from where rates were in Mid-November.  We will enjoy the improvement for now and continue to watch it as we still have some room to run before hitting resistance.  Hopefully we can hold onto these gains today as its typically a volatile day after the jobs report like this!

CLICK HERE for the January 10, 2014 Guaranteed Mortgage Rate Sheet  Continue reading →

Mortgage Rate update Nov 29_2013

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Courtesy Tony Guaraldi VP of Mortgage Lending

We’ve got some housing numbers to share with you this week and all of it points to a strong and stable housing market. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index was reported this week showing values increased nationally by 0.3% in September.  The Year over Year is up 8.5% which is a good number for national appreciation of home prices.  The Case Shiller Home Price Index for September which tracks closing prices in 20 major cities in the US reported values were up 0.7%.   Home Prices are up 13.3% according to them year over year.  This is the best number in 7.5 years!  Robert Shiller was interviewed on CNBC and although the numbers look good they did not scare him in terms of a potential housing bubble.  He explained that those surveyed were not too optimistic which alleviates any bubble concerns he may have had.  He noted the rate of appreciation is slowing but this is probably a good thing as 13% appreciation is not sustainable, but there is nothing wrong with 6% appreciation which may be where housing is headed nationally.

CLICK HERE for the current Mortgage Rate Sheet  Continue reading →

Nov 15_ AWESOME Jumbo Rates and Mortgage Update

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November 15, 2013 Friday Rate Sheet and Market Commentary _ Courtesy Tony Guaraldi VP of Mortgage Lending

As we had hoped the Mortgage Bond markets bounced back this week recovering some of the losses from last Friday’s Jobs Report.  The highly anticipated event for this week was the Confirmation Hearing for our new Fed President Janet Yellen which took place yesterday morning.  She is perceived to be “Dovish” which in our world means likely to continue the stimulus that has been keeping interest rates low and the stock market rising.  In her Q and A session at the hearing she did say as expected that the Fed would continue the bond purchases until the economy improves.  She did also mention that she believes the real unemployment rate is closer to 10% rather than the number from last week’s Jobs report at 7.3%.

CLICK HERE for the November 15 Mortgage Rate Sheet.

Continue reading →

Oct 18 GREAT Rates and Mortgage Update

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Jeni Pfeiffer Intero presents mortgage update courtesy Tony Guaraldi:  As we mentioned the last couple weeks Bonds are trading between the 100 and 200 day moving average right now and that trend continued this week as expected. CLICK HERE for the Oct 18, 2013 Mortgage Rate Sheet. Continue reading →