First, I hope everyone is doing okay with everything going on. As many banks and other lenders pull back thru the pandemic and the mortgage rate increase we are still funding. We fund and hold all of our loans in cash without leverage so we will continue to lend during these uncertain times. We rode through the 2008 crisis and have more than enough capital to ride through this as well.
I’m going to continue my weekly blog posts to keep everyone up to date on what I am seeing in the market as we continue lending, servicing loans, and managing properties. In these uncertain times I don’t foresee the sky falling and we will continue doing what we do best providing great information on real estate and closing loans in less than 10 days in GA, CO, and FL. If you have questions on the market or need anything we will be here. If you need us, call or e-mail and we will get back to you quickly.
The mortgage market “broke” this week!
It is interesting that treasuries have fallen to the lowest level on record yet mortgage rates actually rose. Mortgage rates typically trade in a very tight range to treasuries and move in unison. This week just the opposite happened as treasuries dropped to their lowest levels, 30 year mortgages actually increased to almost 4% which is just the opposite of what we would expect. Bloomberg news did an interesting article on this topic: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-12/u-s-mortgage-rates-somehow-some-way-rise-amid-market-panic
What caused the mortgage market to raise rates?
Rates increased significantly for two reasons: 1) Demand 2) no end buyers of the mortgage security
- Demand: As rates dropped the mortgage market was overwhelmed with demand from refinance activity, this allowed banks to raise rates in order to try and slow demand and increase profitability
- End buyers: As rates plummeted, the amount of purchasers of mortgage notes dried up
The Good news:
- Demand: With this much pent up demand for refinancing, once the mortgage market levels out there will be a ton of liquidity added to the market as mortgage payments in some cases could be cut in half. The Federal reserve will likely cut rates further which will only increase the liquidity. Once the market settles down from the virus, lots of cash will be available to spend.
- End Buyers: With end buyers balking at locking in rates now, they are basically saying that they don’t believe rates will stay this low for an extended period of time. They don’t want a 30 year note at a sub 3% rate as the thought is that the economy will improve and rates will rise. I suspect the federal reserve will step in with Fannie and Freddie to help the market and purchase these securities to increase liquidity.
Even though all the information coming out today is not uplifting by any stretch of the imagination, I think that this event will be short lived (3 or 4 months at best) due to signals the mortgage market is providing with buyers refusing to buy the lower rates. Fortunately, whatever happens we will be here to assist and continue funding. Please reach out if we can assist on anything.
Additional reading/resource
I need your help!
Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to wire money to your long-lost cousin that is going to give you a million dollars if you just send them your bank account! I do need your help though, please like and share our articles on linkedin, twitter, facebook, and other social media. I would greatly appreciate it.
Written by Glen Weinberg, COO/ VP Fairview Commercial Lending. Glen has been published as an expert in hard money lending, real estate valuation, financing, and various other real estate topics in Bloomberg, Businessweek ,the Colorado Real Estate Journal, National Association of Realtors Magazine, The Real Deal real estate news, the CO Biz Magazine, The Denver Post, The Scotsman mortgage broker guide, Mortgage Professional America and various other national publications.
Fairview is a hard money lender specializing in private money loans / non-bank real estate loans in Georgia, Colorado, Illinois, and Florida. They are recognized in the industry as the leader in hard money lending with no upfront fees or any other games. Learn more about Hard Money Lending through our free Hard Money Guide. To get started on a loan all we need is our simple one page application (no upfront fees or other games).