[F16 1UB]

I attended a neighborhood gathering tonight and a lady, who closes home loans for a law firm, told me that she's being called back to work after many months of sitting idle. It seems that home loans, not refi's, are on the up. She said this is definitely good news for the housing market. I'd say. Lets just hope that we're one of them to get closed on soon. Unfortunately the location is around the Cincinnati area but at least there's a glimmer of hope being generated with the low interest rates.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

F16

[trichard]

We were at the closing department yesterday to refinance. Loan officer says two years ago the villages was closing 650 per month; now its 150.

[rshoffer]

Originally Posted by trichard

We were at the closing department yesterday to refinance. Loan officer says two years ago the villages was closing 650 per month; now its 150.

Well, the rat-tat-tat of hammers has certainly quieted down in the past few months in areas that had been building in a frenzy. I have not heard much optimistic news about anything related to the economy. If 30 year fixed mortgages get down to 4.5 percent things might pick up.

[chuckinca]

Originally Posted by trichard

We were at the closing department yesterday to refinance. Loan officer says two years ago the villages was closing 650 per month; now its 150.

That's about 5 houses a day. This time last year the skinny was they were doing 7 houses a day; down nearly 30% from last year.

If build out is 25,000 houses away at 150/mo = 167 months = 14 years, not 4 years as is often mentioned.

At this rate, I wouldn't expect to see Brownwood Square starting up for many years.


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[F16 1UB]

Instead of saying that NEW LOANS are up, the lady I talked to the other night now says that most of her closings are refi's. I thought that would be the case originally but I'm not the one doing the work. Sorry, I was misinformed. Actually I'm grabbing for anything positive at this stage of the game. We're still trying to sell. Maybe, just maybe....

[bogart]

Trichard --
Are you referring to New home closings or all closings? We were interested in doing a refinance but would have to come up with additional money to maintain the 20% down payment since our home has declined in price. For now, we've postponed that idea despite the good rates. Do others have the same issue ...... and what did you decide to do?