40 Year Mortgage? The Department of HUD announced a 480 Month Mortgage Modification for folks that can’t achieve the minimum 25% payment reduction through standard modification means. This is for individuals who are behind on their mortgage payment due to financial distress.
Mortgage Rates – increased at the end of this week after 3 weeks of solid decline. The price of Mortgaged Backed Securities (MBS) broke above the 200-day moving average for the first time since November of 2021, only to quickly fall back underneath. Rates are up 2% from this time last year.
Jobs – the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) reported 236,000 job creations in March. 30% of these gains were in the leisure and hospitality sector and that sector has gained backed 98% of the jobs lost due to the pandemic. While the hourly wages increased slightly, hours worked declined and the weekly earnings remained flat at 3.3% year over year increase. This is the lowest reading in nearly 2 years and a sign inflation may be slowing. The number of people filing for unemployment for the first time is approximately 240,000 per week (when averaged over the last 4 weeks).
Home Values – Core Logic’s Home Price Index showed that home values increased by 0.8% last month and are up 4.4% year over year. Core Logic predicts home values will appreciate at a more moderate pace of 0.2% per month and 3.7% over the next year.
Manufacturing – the ISM Manufacturing Index declined from 47.7 to 46.3% in March. If you remove the outlying Covid years, 2009 was the last time this index was this low.
Mortgage Applications to purchase homes declined 3.5% last week and are down 35% year over year. Refinance applications fell 5.4% last week and are down 59% year over year.