Orlando Mortgage Blog

My spouse, the queen of my domain made a heart felt comment today in passing something to the effect that as few after school programs as we have available for our children and as much as society likes to complain about the problems of our youth today 'wasn't it something that the powers that be in Orange County, Florida were considering cutbacks on extra curricular school programs such as junior varsity sports and other programs and yet with a budget surplus were considering purchasing foreclosed and abandoned houses that they would repair and resell in the market'.

On the surface that's a fair question. But I reminded her of the 1970's and early 1980's when hundreds of boarded up HUD foreclosed homes covered this market during the bad markets and S&L crisis at the time. Many neighborhoods looked, and in many cases were, blighted by those homes that owners were either kicked out of or walked away from leaving remaining neighbors living next to yards that were knee to waste high, windows and doors that were plywooded over and crime and vandalism ran wild. The REO departments at the banks and S&L's didn't want to put any more money than they absolutely had to into maintaining them and they sat. Their neighbors suffered for years. So there is a definite logic to stepping up to the problem to the extent they can and I for one would much rather see a neighborhood revamped than worrying about the next bigger and better arena or monorail project for folks that either can actually afford a ticket to go or a tourist that wants a better ride to I-Drive. And JV sports is more important to me than either of them. But that's my opinion of course.

Bill Wilbanks

Orlando Mortgage Masters

Just a couple comments today:

Housing starts were up 22% in February (and yes it was a warm February). That would be a lot more positive if it weren't heavily influenced by an emphasis on multifamily/apartment starts weighing on the number. Apparently apartment living is back on the hit list. I don't know if that is due to affordability or risk aversion. Applications for building permits actually rose by 3% at an annual rate of 547,000. Pretty good considering they were generally expected to fall to a 500,000 run rate. Pretty bad if you are trying to sell your home and they're still building more to compete with you, huh?

For years it's been more or less generalized, and I've had to drop that word from my vocabulary, that a person could expect the 30 year fixed rate to be about 1.50% above the 10 year treasury yield. Well today the 10 year is loping around 3%, so you might expect to see the 30 year fixed around 4.50% par +/-, right? Wrong. Right now and in the recent weeks it's been running around 2%+ above putting us around 5.00% or higher depending on the assumptions used, which is still much better than the 2.50%+ over the 10 year it had been running at for quite some time in prior months. As hard as the Feds are working to get rates lower, it's not happening yet. But, if you had offered me a 5% fixed rate in 1974 when I bought my first home, I'd have been ecstatic. I got a 7.25% rate then and that was 35 years ago. Rates aren't the problem. It's perception as much as anything today folks. Normally when rates go down home prices go up. Today they're both down. If you are looking to buy a home...what a deal!

BILL WILBANKS