Blog, Market Updates

Austin Mortgage Update – Week Ending 2/13/09

February 13, 2009 by Kevin Wilhelm · Leave a Comment

What Did Interest Rates Do This Week?
** according to Freddie Mac **

30-yr Fixed – Slightly Lower
This Week: 5.16%
Last Week: 5.25%
1yr Ago: 5.72%

15-yr Fixed – Slightly Lower
This Week: 4.81%
Last Week: 4.92%
1yr Ago: 5.25%

5/1 ARM – Slightly Lower
This Week: 5.23%
Last Week: 5.26%
1yr Ago: 5.19%

Highlight of This Week’s Major Economic Reports

After much anticipation and ongoing debate, Congress finally passed a stimulus bill that is aimed at reviving the economy and creating 3-4 million jobs for American workers. The slimmed-down $789 billion economic recovery plan includes a $8,000 tax credit available only to first-time homebuyers who meet the income requirements, and the credit has been extended for purchases through the end of November. An exciting twist to this tax credit is the removal of the repayment feature as long as the home is not sold within three years.

And, while the stimulus plan also extended the higher loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, this won’t have an impact on us, since Texas is not considered a “high cost region,” thereby leaving our conforming loan limits at $417,000.

Additionally, the newly minted Treasury Secretary announced plans (with details to be laid out in the coming weeks) to utilize the remaining $350 billion TARP money to combat the foreclosure crisis and help banks remove “toxic assets” from their balance sheets. We’ll all be anxious to learn more about the specifics behind these plans, as they will undoubtedly determine the direction of mortgage rates in the near term.

Short-Term Rate Outlook

Stable

Stay Informed: What’s in the News

“Texas Tops in Job Growth” from BizJournals and Texas A&M Real Estate Center

Texas was top in job growth last year, according to a recent analysis by bizjournals.com.

Five Texas cities ranked among the top ten, with three securing the top three spots.
Houston added 57,300 jobs in 2008, giving it the best year of any U.S. market. Dallas–Fort Worth was next with 43,300 additional jobs, then San Antonio, which was up by 14,900 jobs.

Austin ranked fifth with 9,600 jobs added, and El Paso’s 5,300 additional jobs landed the city at ninth.

Bizjournals.com examines markets that have at least 250,000 nonfarm jobs and compares employment figures for the final month of the past two years. Seventy-two of the 88 markets studied suffered declines in employment in 2008.