Zimbabwe sends aid, China lollypops
Zimbabwe has agreed to send $86,933,748,114,8475, 688, 274 Zimbabwean dollars in aid to help alleviate the US deficit after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) discovered an extra $402 trillion bill, not mentioned by the administration, attached to HAMP. “It’s only a few thousand billion dollars,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “Only the selfish, the uncaring, would complain about money when little Tommy Lee is cast into the road homeless.” So far, the cost of HAMP is estimated to be in the hundreds of trillions of dollars, and has effectively helped save 103 homes from foreclosure at a cost of approximately $48,543,689.32 per household. “Let me be perfectly clear,” said President Obama, “this shows the responsiveness of this administration to the woes of the middle class. We also intend to make the hard choices necessary to pass out free lollypops to every citizen of the US. Our Chinese friends have supplied these candies of goodwill and we have even tested them for excessive lead content.” Under questioning, Democratic Congressional leaders admit that in return for the lollypops, the administration has agreed to sink the 6th fleet. Who needs the darned thing anyway?” asked Vice President Biden. “Big floaty guns and such don’t figure in our foreign policy reset program. Oh, and by the way, it’s April Fools Day!”
Jobless claims down
According to the Labor Department, there were 439,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended March 27, down 6,000 from an upwardly revised 445,000 the previous week. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected new claims to dip to 440,000 in the week. The number of new claims matches the lowest level since the week ended Feb. 6. The Labor Department also tracks the 4-week moving average of initial claims, which smoothes out volatility in the measure. That number was 447,250 for the week, down 6,750 from the previous week’s downwardly revised average of 454,000. The report also said that 4,662,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended March 20, the most recent data available. That figure was down 6,000 from the preceding week’s 4,668,000 claims and slightly higher than the 4.62 million economists expected, according to Briefing.com. The 4-week moving average for continuing claims was 4,679,500, a decrease of 12,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,692,000.
Vacation sales up, investment sales down
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), NAR’s 2010 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, covering existing- and new-home transactions in 2009, shows vacation-home sales rose 7.9 percent to 553,000 last year from 513,000 in 2008, while investment-home sales fell 15.9 percent to 940,000 in 2009 from 1.12 million in 2008. Primary residence sales rose 7.1 percent to 4.04 million in 2009 from 3.77 million in 2008. Only one in four vacation-home buyers plan to rent their properties to others, while one in five investment buyers plan to use their homes for vacations or as a family retreat. However, 26 percent of vacation-home buyers and 8 percent of investment buyers intend to use the property as a primary residence in the future. The market share of homes purchased for investment was 17 percent in 2009, down from 21 percent in 2008, while the vacation-home share rose a percentage point to 10 percent. The total share of second homes declined from 30 percent of sales in 2008 to 27 percent last year. The median transaction price of a vacation home was $169,000 in 2009, compared with $150,000 in 2008. The median investment property sold for $105,000 last year, down 2.8 percent from $108,000 in 2008. There were more investment sales in the West in 2009, consistent with reports in California of a high share of all-cash purchases, notably in lower price ranges.
DSNews.com – Non-HAMP Mods Account for Two-Thirds of Mods
HOPE NOW announced yesterday that its members completed an estimated 95,586 proprietary loan modifications in February 2010, which is almost double the 52,905 modifications completed under the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) during the same month. Of the proprietary loan modifications completed in February, approximately 78 percent included a reduction of principal and interest payments. HOPE NOW’s data also showed that foreclosure starts and sales dropped 17 percent for the month, along with a 4 percent decrease in the number of 60-plus day delinquencies. “Our data shows that mortgage servicers are continuing a strong effort on proprietary and HAMP modifications in the first two months of 2010,” said Faith Schwartz, executive director of HOPE NOW, the private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and nonprofit counselors. However, with almost 4 million loans currently in default, Schwartz said HOPE NOW realizes that its work is not yet done. She said mortgage servicers and housing counselors have worked extremely hard through aggressive borrower outreach, and HOPE NOW remains determined to keep as many families as possible in their homes.
DSNews.com – Government stay out!
The government recently ramped up its efforts to help troubled homeowners, but according to a recent opinion poll by Destin, Florida-based Housing Predictor, that’s not what the majority of people want. Despite the impact it would have on the U.S. economy, 78 percent of those polled said they want the government to let home foreclosures run their course instead of making efforts to stop the crisis. Housing predictor said its poll clearly demonstrates the public’s growing frustration and anger related to the nation’s troubled economy. The company, which provides independent housing market forecasts, also said the poll shows that the sympathy for those undergoing foreclosure is waning. More than 5 million homeowners have already been foreclosed in the crisis, and another 13 million homes are at risk of foreclosure, Housing Predictor said. According to government officials, each foreclosure damages the U.S. economy an average of $250,000. As a result, a series of government programs have been instituted to curtail the foreclosure crisis and aid the housing market in its recovery. Despite these efforts, 63 percent of the respondents surveyed said they are not optimistic about the U.S. housing market recovering from its worst downturn since the Great Depression. The online poll was conducted over a two-week period.
The markets are already closed for the day as they are only open half day on Good Friday. Rates went up considerably this week as the economy gained 162,000 new jobs in March. It looks like the come back has started.
Another factor with rates is the FED has stopped purchasing mortgage backed securities this last Wednesday. One of the reasons rates have been so low is that the FED has been pumping money into MBS funds to keep rates low during the tough economic times. With the FED stopping these purchases we will see what interest rates the private investors want on the street. The consensus is that rates will increase by .25 to .5% over the next few weeks.
I hope you have a fun weekend planned with family and friends. May you have a very blessed Easter.
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