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How to Earn More Referrals This Holiday Season
Thanksgiving and Black Friday are now in our rearview mirror! Hanukkah starts today, and with Christmas and New Year’s right around the corner, now is the perfect time to reach out to your clients. Without regular touches, former clients could easily forget that you’re still an active agent in their area and may not […]
More Analysis on Existing Home Sales
Today, in the Real Estate Newsletter: Existing-Home Sales Increased to 6.34 million in October Excerpt: Sales in October (6.34 million SAAR) were up 0.8% from last month, and were 5.8% below the October 2020 sales rate. Some of the increase in sales since the beginning of the pandemic was probably related to record low mortgage […]
Weekend Habits That Will Capture More Referrals
If you’re a successful agent, your weeks are usually extremely busy. You may want to keep up with former clients and earn new referrals as part of your workday to-dos, but with such little downtime, those thoughtful touches can fall by the wayside. One way to combat this issue is to make time for it […]
Rates at 3-Week Highs, More Volatility Ahead
Rates were excellent at the beginning of the week, but that began to change on Wednesday. We were already well on our way to 3-week highs on Thursday, and Friday made it official. Notably, these 3-week highs are still historically low. Friday’s main source of drama was the strong jobs report from the Labor Department. […]
More Than 1 Million Loans in Forbearance Scheduled to Expire in June; Builder Confidence Stays Steady
The number of loans in active forbearance plans dropped by 2.7 percent last week. Black Knight says this continues a recent trend of strong improvements in the forbearance numbers in the early part of each month. The 61,000 loans that exited the program during the week ended May 11 leaves 2.16 million loans still in […]
Mortgage Rates Modestly Lower, But Hoping For More
At this point, no one should be surprised to hear that mortgage rates have moved significantly higher in 2021–especially in the past few weeks. There are several reasons for this, but the easiest way to make sense of it all is to say “rates were ultra low when covid was at its worst and they’ve […]
Still Cheaper to Own; Forbearance Improvement Slows; No More Record Low Rates?
In most parts of the country owning a home is more affordable than renting one according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ 2021 Rental Affordability Report . The company looked at the median price of a three-bedroom home in 915 U.S. counties and the rent for a comparable home and found owning more affordable 572 or 63 […]
Mid-Month Forbearance Pattern Repeats; More On Mortgage Rates’ Ticking Clock; Freddie Adopting SOFR
There was an increase in the number of loans in forbearance over the last week as the share within all lender portfolios, even the GSEs’, moved higher. Black Knight said, however, that an uptick in mid-month has become common, generally driven by fewer borrowers exiting their plans. This was true this past week as well. […]
Fewer Forbearances; More Homebuilding; Higher Ficos; Lowest Rates
There was another decline in forbearance starts this past week and the number of loans in active plans also fell for the third straight week. Black Knight’s weekly report on COVID-19 related forbearances reported a total of 4.12 million loans that have been granted forbearance, allowing borrowers to omit or reduce mortgage payments due to […]