In our world, we are very fortunate to meet so many people on a day to day basis.  Some make a very large impression on me.  Merv was one of those.  What an amazing guy to just sit and talk to. 
Today I attended his memorial service.  He was a Veteran, so it was the full Hero's Service.  I was honored to see him being remembered.  My heart is heavy for Linda and my thoughts are with her and the family.
I thank God that so many great people come into my life because of what I do.
Merv - I will always have you in my thoughts.

In a week light on economic news, the markets were relatively
quiet. Although there was some
intraday trading that caused the stock indices to make some significant moves,
here we are at the end of the week and the DOW is within 100 points of where it
started the week.
Housing seems to be quietly puttering along with no real indication of
direction.  Housing inventories in
some areas of the country have increased slightly however demand seems to be
remaining somewhat stagnate.  This
means that transactions continue to occur at a moderately slower pace but there
certainly continues to be activity.
In a few interviews in different parts of the country it seems that
confidence in the real estate market is beginning to return. 
Homeownership since the market meltdown has been seen more as a “want’
than how it used to be viewed which was a “need” for long term wealth
building.
After the great recession the view on real estate certainly has been
impacted due to the extensive value declines experienced everywhere. 
The good thing is that the sentiment towards housing is starting to
return in America where it is being seen once again as investment tool for the
future.  The sentiment is changing
ever so slowly.
With the holiday shortened week, mortgage applications declined for
both purchases and refinances. 
Some of the decline is related to children returning to school in some
parts of the country. Mortgage rates which have been trending slightly higher
are also seen as part of the reason for the drop in mortgage activity.  Purchase applications according to the
Mortgage Bankers Association of American dropped 3.0 percent. 
Refinance applications plummeted 11.0 percent. 
Refinances will always be more sensitive to interest rate movements and
that is clearly shown in this past week’s
numbers.
First time jobless claims increased from 304K to 315K last week.  This is the first significant increase
we have seen in recent weeks.  It
is premature to take anything from the increase as far as looking for a
trend.  Claims will always
vacillate from week to week. Moving
forward it will be important to keep our eye on the movement of claims as
employment, although greatly improved since the recession, still remains a
concern.
The big corporate news of the week was Apple’s announcement of the
IPhone 6 and the IWatch.  Apple
users are one of the most loyal consumers that exist. 
Some are so loyal that they started since last Friday lining up outside
the NYC Apple Store to be the first ones to get their hands on the new
phone.
As your mortgage professional, I am happy to assist
you with any information you may need regarding mortgage or real estate
trends.  I welcome the opportunity
to serve you in any way I possibly can. 
Please feel free to reach me at (209) 614
-6047.

The report that everyone has been waiting for all week is the employment data released by the Department of Labor on Friday morning.  This report comes on the heels of Thursday’s optimistic ADP Employment Report which estimated an increase in private payrolls at a healthy 204,000. 
However, the Department of Labor announced that only 142,000 jobs were added in the month of August.  This is the lowest increase all year.  Within minutes of the employment announcement the stock market futures
tanked by over 60 points. Outside of the employment data, there has been very little market news
for investors to trade on.  For the first 4 days of the week the stock market has ended almost exactly where it
started.  Other than the Labor Department’s Friday employment report, the three biggest reports for the week
were on manufacturing, construction spending and jobless claims.  The first report was ISM manufacturing report which measures the opinions of 300 purchasing managers nationwide about the general direction of production, new orders, order backlogs, and their own inventories.  The most recent survey show optimism for future manufacturing growth to
be very strong.  New orders for the month of August showed exceptional growth over an already strong reading in
July.  Construction spending for the month of July showed a broad-based gain.  Spending rebounded 1.8 percent after a drop in June of 0.9 percent.  The increase in spending was broad and occurred in all areas of construction.  July’s increase in spending was led by the public sector which jumped 3.0 percent.  Private nonresidential spending rose 2.1 percent.  Finally private residential outlays for construction spending rose 0.7 percent.
First time jobless claims have been maintaining their improvement over
the last few weeks by remaining right in the 300K region. 
When claims hold steady in this area, that is considered healthy towards
economic and employment sector stability. 
However claims and jobs being added are two different measurements as we
can see by the difference between jobless claims and new jobs created.
The only real news in for the real estate market for the week is the Mortgage Bankers Association loan application report.  For the week ending August 29th the MBA reported that applications for purchases and refinances were down 2.0 percent and up 1.0 percent respectively. The rather stagnant move in purchase applications for this time of year is not unexpected.  With children returning back to school, and summer vacations coming to an end, decisions for home purchases are typically slow at the end of August.
As your mortgage professional, I am happy to assist you with any information you may need regarding mortgage or real estate trends.  I welcome the opportunity
to serve you in any way I possibly can. 
Please feel free to reach me at (209)
614-6047.

There seems to be little standing in the way of the stock market rising these days.  Through the first 4 trading days of the week the market is up 275 points.  Despite all of the doom and gloom predictions that the markets were going to get hurt as the Fed continued to taper their stimulus program, none of that has come to be.  Additionally, mortgage rates were expected to have risen by now.  What is interesting is that just this week mortgage rates hit the lowest point in a year according to Freddie Mac. There were 3 key housing reports released this week which all came in better than expected.  On Monday the Housing Market Index, which comes from The National Association of Home Builders, came in with a solid 55, which was up 2 points from July.  This is the highest reading since January. There may be signs of a housing comeback in new construction. 

Housing starts for July jumped 15.7 percent which is a huge turnaround from the prior months 4.0 percent decline.  Strength in the increase was led by the multifamily component of the report.  Multifamily surged 28.9 percent after a 3.1 percent decline in June. The single-family component also showed strength with a greater than expected 8.3 percent rise. 

The final positive housing report this week came on Thursday in the existing home sales report.  The data showed a 2.4 rise for the month of July which topped most expert’s predictions. June was also revised upward to 2.4 percent.  The only slight down note is that the July report shows sales are down 4.3 percent from a year ago, however the gap between the current year and last year continues to close which can be seen as a positive trend.   Strength in the housing report indicates that single family home sales is where the increase was strongest.  Additionally the supply of homes for sale for the latest month actually rose faster than sales.  Housing supply increased by 3.5 percent in July to 2.37 million units.  

This report is very encouraging. What is very interesting as of late is that the release of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes for the last few months has generated virtually no market reaction.  Not too long ago the market would hinge on every word in these reports as investors were concerned about the Fed’s tapering of the stimulus program which created fear that interest rates would rise. Ironically virtually all of the predictions of higher interest rates and a worsening labor market as a result of the tapering have not come to fruition. In fact this week unemployment claims dropped below 300,000 for the first time since the recession.

Next week will be busy with some important housing
data:   
Monday August 25th – New Home Sales
Tuesday August 26th – Durable Goods Orders, FHFA House Price Index and Case-Shiller 
Wednesday August 27th - MBA Applications and FOMC Minutes    
Thursday August 28th - First Time  Jobless Claims, GDP and Pending Home Sales         
Friday August 29th – Consumer  Sentiment 

As your mortgage professional, I am happy to assist you with any information you may need regarding mortgage or real estate trends.  I welcome the opportunity to serve you in any way I possibly can.  
Please feel free to reach me at (209) 614-6047.