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Shared by Nhu Phuong Pham, Edinburgh, Scotland
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“Responsible lending by community banks and credit unions did not cause the financial crisis, and our mortgage rules reflect the fact that small institutions play a vital role in many communities,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray in a press statement. “Today’s proposal will help consumers in rural or underserved areas access the mortgage credit they need, while still maintaining these important new consumer protections.” -- Phill Hall in NationalMortgageProfessional.com http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/52604/cfpb-proposes-rule-change-rural-and-underserved-markets?
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Shared and taken by Pasi Hortoma, somewhere in Finland this week
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It was another volatile but successful day for mortgages yesterday as the market swings have been compounded on uncertainty about the impact of potential interest rate hikes by the Fed, concerns about Greece, and worries about global economic growth. In economic news yesterday, the US trade deficit jumped to $46.6 billion in December vs. $39.8 billion in November which marks its highest level in two years. The $6.8 billion gap (the largest one-month gain on record) was fueled by the strengthening of the dollar vs. foreign currencies and the drop in oil prices. The mortgage outperformance (vs treasuries) was driven by lighter origination which was a relatively modest $1.8bln and strong demand from the Fed (bought $2.1bln) and money managers.
Today is Jobs Friday, and the January jobs numbers are in and were better than the expected +228k for non-farm payrolls as the US created 257k jobs in January, while the headline unemployment number rose a touch from the projected 5.6% to 5.7%, and the average hourly earnings came in at +0.5 from -0.2 in December, biggest gain since 2008. There were also upward revisions to the November and December numbers so that now the three month average of new jobs created is above 300k and is the biggest three-month gain in 17 years. Yes, on the surface this is a really good Jobs report for the US and will more than likely add pressures to the Fed to think about raising short term interest rates sooner rather than later. As expected, mortgage prices and treasures are taking the good news negatively and are down in early trading. -- Kevin Jones kevin.jones@lionbank.com
-------------------------------------------------Shared by Nhu Phuong Pham, To-ji Temple in Nara, Japan
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Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to today’s first or advance estimate. -- United States Department of Commerce
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Shared by Luis Armando Oyarzun, Angelmo. Puerto Montt. Chile
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