Nashville Real Estate Forum

Weekend Market Update

March 6-7, 2010

Mortgage rates continue to cling to a range of lows for 2010, although no one is betting they will remain here long.

Interest-rate sensitive instruments were rocked after the Labor Department reported its February non-farm payrolls number (36,000 jobs lost) as better than expected as were its tally of average hours worked and unemployment rate, which was posted as 9.7%. Lenders scrambled to reprice mortgage rates for the worse and the 10-year Treasury dropped; however, by the market’s close, mortgage-backed securities had regained most of the day’s losses, and some lenders reversed themselves.

For the week, the action in mortgage rate pricing ended about like it started, which was in the range of lows for this year. The bottom was hit on Feb. 5, but we are back in that zip code at this point. All my market resources are screaming that now is the time to lock rates as the balance of the year is expected to see interest rates move higher.

U.S. stocks posted another week of strong gains, led by the NASDAQ index, which settled Friday at its highest close since September 3, 2008.

Although all markets are choppy over most time frames, and movements are more backing and filling instead of straight-line rocket shots (or crashes), it may be safe to say it this way: the line of least resistance for stocks appears to be up; the direction of least resistance for mortgage-backed securities and bonds appears to be down (in price, which means up in rate and yield as these instruments must increase rate and yield to draw buyers).

While the stock market generally liked the unemployment number---but only for not being worse---the true unemployment rate, counting long-term unemployed persons who are off the charts and who are listed as having given up seeking a job---is probably closer to 17%.

Education level correlates to the unemployment rate, as better-educated Americans have lower unemployment than others. The following analysis (and my quote from Einstein below) come from Chart of the Day (http://www.chartoftheday.com/20100305.htm?T):

“Today, the Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7% during the month of February. For some perspective on the current state of the labor market, today's chart illustrates the unemployment rate by educational attainment.

“As today's chart illustrates, a higher educational attainment has correlated with a lower unemployment rate. For example, the unemployment rate for those that have not completed high school (red line) has increased from 5.8% to 15.6% over the past 40 months -- nearly a 10 percentage point increase. Compare that to the unemployment rate for those that have obtained a bachelor's degree or greater (blue line).

“The unemployment rate for those with a minimum of a bachelor's degree is currently three percentage points above where it was 40 months ago. In any event, the upward trend in the unemployment rate (for all education levels) has slowed in recent months.”

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.75% $100,000-$417,000


FHA-100% VA

5% $100,000-$393,300


100% Guaranteed Rural Housing w/no MI

5.5% $100,000-$417,000

30-Year Jumbo Fixed

6% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available-Call me)

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Cell: 615-579-8658 Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

"The value of an education ... is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks." - Albert Einstein

Visit my mortgage website:

http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

(0% points, 1% origination, subject to program and lock period. Market Update informs on market trends and is not a quote for a unique borrower. Reply "remove" with your name and email address to discontinue Update.)

Weekend Market Update

Feb. 27-28, 2010

Mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries regained in the last week of February most of what they lost the third week of February and closed in the trigger-pulling, locking range of low mortgage rates just days after market watchers feared the sky was falling. An ongoing scenario of low inflation and a weak economy continue to keep a lid on rates.

Much fanfare has been given to the Fed’s decision to stop buying mortgages, and the concern is that rates will be compelled to rise to attract sufficient numbers of less benevolent investors. When it became apparent earlier this week that everybody---every expert and analyst---got on the same side of the question, that rates were going up-up-up, I started having second thoughts. When “everybody” is saying the same thing, and is taking the same position, the sport is gone and something is wrong. The markets tend to confound the most possible people—even so-called experts—at the worst time.

The market’s action gave a second chance to borrowers and refinancers who thought they had missed the boat with rates rising swiftly last week. All of that said, I still believe the line of least resistance is for rates to go up. And, I think the “experts” are probably right that rates will increase this year, although modestly.

The 10-year Treasury closed at a yield of 3.6%.

Contact me to lock in a refinance rate or get pre-approved for a purchase and snag a piece of this historically favorable time for buying real estate and obtaining financing.

Stocks ended February with a gain of 2.6% in Dow terms, closing at 10,325. Investors welcomed a report from the Commerce Department saying that GDP grew at a 5.9% annual rate in 2009's fourth period, the fastest rate since the third quarter of 2003.

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.75% $100,000-$417,000


FHA-100% VA

5% $100,000-$393,300


100% Guaranteed Rural Housing w/no MI

5.5% $100,000-$417,000

30-Year Jumbo Fixed

6% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available-Call me)

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Cell: 615-579-8658  Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

"If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Visit my real estate website:

http://www.RealCarte.com

Visit my mortgage website:

http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

(0% points, 1% origination, subject to program and lock period. Market Update informs on market trends and is not a quote for a unique borrower.)

Weekend Market Update

Feb. 20-21, 2010

Red Alert on Rates

Note: Red alert on rates is posted for Realtors, builders and consumers at what we believe are critical market turning points.

Mortgage rates appear fully engaged in a trend higher, having risen about 120 basis points since the lows of 2010 were hit on Feb. 5. That roughly translates to an increase in a 30-year fixed rate of .25%-.375%. We have been in a “5 per cent market,” meaning 30-year fixed rates have been around 5%, more or less. It would not be surprising to find ourselves in a 6 per cent market before long.

After another day of rising rates on Friday and after some of the bad news got flushed out, the market for mortgage backed securities and the often-correlated 10-year Treasury actually closed higher for the day, meaning pressure on rates eased. For most of this week, my phone was buzzing with texted updates of market changes alerting that rates were rising at a gallop.

The move up in rates---and down in price for mortgage-backed securities---was accelerated when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reiterated last week (as reported in our Feb. 13-14 Weekend Market Update) that the Fed would cease buying mortgages in March. That was not unexpected as the Fed had been signaling that for some time. The macro move to the current leg of historically low rates was kicked off in November 2008 when the Fed announced they would step in and buy mortgages.

Unplugging Life Support

Certain market watchers had predicted that the Fed would extend life support to the markets, but now it is clear the Fed’s policy is to slowly withdraw some of the props it had put under the housing market. The Fed also this week announced it was increasing its discount rate, which it charges banks, from .5% to .75%. This is not the Fed funds rate and does not affect prime.

Without Fed buying of loans, rates may have to rise in mortgaged-backeds to lure investors who want a certain return for the risk of buying mortgages. There will be days of backing and filling, and the market will not shoot straight in one direction. There are counter forces still at work to keep rates low---high unemployment, a still weak economy and no sign of inflation. When stocks have bad days, it is still likely that money will move into these securities to keep rates in check. However, it appears the trend---or line of least resistance---is now for mortgage-backeds and Treasuries to drop in price and to increase in rate and yield.

(Rates move opposite the price of the related instrument. For instance, the 10-year Treasury had a range of 50 basis points on Friday, selling off for most of the day and touching the 4% yield range before buying prevailed in late afternoon, and it closed in yield at 3.78%. So, if you were watching CNBC on Friday, they were telling you Treasuries are down/weak and selling off as they have been all week, and then that Treasuries rallied to finish up/strong for the day. The translation for rates, therefore, was higher rates/yields when Treasuries were weak and selling off, and rates/yields got lower as buyers for mortgage-backeds and Treasuries prevailed in late afternoon trading.)

Stock market averages gained for the week as investors took the Fed’s backing off of market stimuli as a sign that the Fed believes the economy has improved and is becoming more able to stand on its own two feet.

Why Buy Now?

April 30 is the last day to have a contract in hand in order to take advantage of the first-time homebuyer credit of up to $8,000 and the move-up buyer credit of $6,500. April 15 is another date to mark on the calendar and not just because income taxes are due---it is the last day FHA case numbers will have the current level of up-front mortgage insurance. The MIP is going from 1.75% to 2.25% after that date.

Remember that I work for a direct lender, a mortgage banker that underwrites and funds its own loans. That keeps the buying process more efficient and better insures your timely closing.

Rising rates ahead also present another reason to buy real estate at this time.

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.875% $100,000-$417,000


FHA-100% VA

5.25% $100,000-$393,300


100% Guaranteed Rural Housing w/no MI

5.5% $100,000-$417,000

30-Year Jumbo Fixed Rate

6.25% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available-Call me)

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Cell: 615-579-8658 Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

"The time is always right to do what is right." --Martin Luther King Jr.

Visit my real estate website:

http://www.REALCarte.com


Visit my mortgage website:

http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

(0% points, 1% origination, subject to program and lock period. Market Update informs on market trends and is not a quote for a unique borrower.)

Weekend Market Update

Feb. 13-14, 2010

Mortgage rates came off their 2010 lows this week as weak demand for $40 billion in three-year Treasury notes and general firming in stocks for the week were cited as driving forces.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed would quit purchasing mortgage-backed securities at the end of March, which was expected. Many economists are forecasting higher interest rates being the theme for the balance of the year.

Stocks broke their three-week losing streak, but not before plunging below 10,000 Dow points on Friday and cutting losses to pop back over the psychological 10k mark by the close. All major averages were down the for day except Nasdaq.

Recent mortgage loan data reinforces what we are experiencing locally, which is that there is a surge in home buying at this time, but refinances are coming in at a trickle.

April 30 is the last day to have a contract in hand in order to take advantage of the first-time homebuyer credit of up to $8,000 and the move-up buyer credit of $6,500. April 15 is another date to mark on the calendar and not just because income taxes are due---it is the last day FHA case numbers will have the current level of up-front mortgage insurance. The MIP is going from 1.75% to 2.25% after that date.

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.875% $100,000-$417,000


FHA-100% VA

5% $100,000-$393,300


100% Guaranteed Rural Housing w/no MI

5.5% $100,000-$417,000

30-Year Jumbo Fixed Rate

6% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available-Call me)

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Cell: 615-579-8658 Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

“Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.” ---Samuel Butler

Visit my mortgage website:

http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

(0% points, 1% origination, subject to program and lock period. Market Update informs on market trends and is not a quote for a unique borrower.)

Weekend Market Update

Feb. 6-7, 2010

The battered U.S. stock market recovered from a sharp drop in late trading Friday but still posted its fourth straight weekly drop.

The Dow Jones industrials, down nearly 170 points in afternoon trading, clawed their way back to finish with a gain of 10. But more stocks fell than rose on the New York Stock Exchange as investors contended with another series of troubling signals about the global economy.

Investors worry that the debt problems will hinder efforts to sustain the nascent economic recovery and undermine confidence in the stability of governments that stand behind the euro, which has been dropping against the U.S. dollar.

With the Dow briefly dipping back below 10,000 and the benchmark S&P 500 down 7.3% from its 15-month closing peak of Jan. 19, money managers and analysts say there is a growing sense that the U.S. stock market's rally from the lows of March 2009 has all but run its course.

Market Technicals

Market technicians are watching for stocks to break through downside support, which, in the case of the Dow could be considered to be the 10,000 mark. With stocks selling hard on Thursday---down more than 250 Dow points---in the face of good earnings news on some fronts, that presented another technical signal of a down market ahead. Strong market moves that seem to contradict “news” are usually reliable signals of what is ahead.

Bad news for stocks is often good news for Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, and lenders repriced to the good on Friday.  The 10-year Treasury closed at a yield of 3.55%.

FHA Deadline Coming Up

Closer to where the rubber meets the road in the local real estate market, if there has ever been a time to buy or refinance a home, it seems to be now. FHA is the main game for purchases now, and FHA’s upfront mortgage insurance will jump to 2.25% come April 15. Also, the first-time homebuyer incentive of $8,000 and the move-up buyer incentive of $6,500 are good through April 30. Call me for details or to pre-approve a buyer for the program.

Economists expect interest rates to rise later this year as the weight of debt and China’s projected slowing of U.S. debt purchasing compels higher rates for Treasury issues to be successful.

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.75% $100,000-$417,000


FHA-100% VA

5% $100,000-$393,300


100% Guaranteed Rural Housing w/no MI

5.5% $100,000-$417,000

30-Year Jumbo Fixed Rate

6% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available--Call me)

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Cell: 615-579-8658  Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

“Prosperity is the best protector of principle.” --Mark Twain

Visit my real estate website:

http://www.RealCarte.com

Visit my mortgage website:

http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

(0% points, 1% origination, subject to program and lock period. Market Update informs on market trends and is not a quote for a unique borrower.)

Weekend Market Update

Jan. 30-31, 2010

Stocks logged their worst month in nearly a year as investors shrugged off potentially encouraging economic data.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average ended January down 3.5%, its biggest monthly decline since February 2009. The S&P 500 ended January down 3.7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 5.4% in January.

The Dow closed at 10,067 after a closing print of 10,725 only nine trading days ago on Jan. 19, which was then its highest mark since Oct. 1, 2008.

Good News; Bad News

The Commerce Department said fourth-quarter gross domestic product grew at 5.7%, the fastest rate in six years, easily topping economists' forecast for 4.5% growth. Consumer spending increased at a 2% annual rate, down from 2.9% in the third quarter when the government's cash-for-clunkers program boosted auto sales.

For the entirety of 2009, the economy shrank 2.4%, the worst year for GDP since the 10.9% drop in 1946.

After fourth-quarter GDP was reported, stocks got a lift and bonds were scorned. As Friday’s trading wore on, however, those roles reversed. Mortgage rates were repriced for the better by most lenders in mid-afternoon. The 10-year Treasury note closed at a yield of 3.61%, after yielding just over 4% at Thursday’s close.

Triple Threat

We have three months to take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity for home buyers, and, to some extent, for home sellers. I am referring to the “triple threat” of low interest rates, low home prices and government gifts to homebuyers.

First-time buyers can receive an $8,000 gift from Uncle Sam, and qualified move-up buyers can get a $6,500 gift from the U.S. Treasury for buying a home. Call me to see if you qualify and for your best buying and borrowing strategy. Sellers could get a lift, too, as the market gets a boost from these buyers being in it.

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.75% $100,000-$417,000


FHA-100% VA

5% $100,000-$393,300


100% Guaranteed Rural Housing w/no MI

5.5% $100,000-$417,000

30-Year Jumbo 5/1 ARM (15% down, No MI)

5% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available-Call me)

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Cell: 615-579-8658  Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.” --Josh Billings

Visit my real estate website:

http://www.RealCarte.com

Visit my mortgage website:

http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

(0% points, 1% origination, subject to program and lock period. Market Update informs on market trends and is not a quote for a unique borrower.)

Weekend Market Update

Jan. 23-24, 2010

The stock market suffered its worst setback in more than 10 months this week, and mortgage interest rates stayed low as money moved to Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities.

Stocks have had their worst showing since they began their recovery last March. The market also is seeing the kind of volatility that dominated the market's long slide -- the Dow has had a triple-digit move five straight days for the first time since December 2008.

The Dow lost 4.1 percent this week, its worst week since it hit a 12-year low in early March. It had reached its highest level since Oct. 1, 2008, only this past Tuesday, closing at 10,725.43. On Friday, it closed at 10,172.98.

The markets were rattled on Thursday after President Obama asked Congress to limit the size of big banks and to end to some of the risky trading large financial companies have used to boost their profits. When the TARP program was hustled in during the final days of the Bush presidency, Americans were told that some institutions were "too big to fail." While taxpayers provided a safety net for the massive, for-profit corporations, those companies are now larger than before, due to consolidation and takeovers in the industry.

President Obama is also seeking to reign in high-stakes, high-risk derivative trading which sparked the 2008 economic crisis as the big banks choked on their bad bets.

There is more uncertainty for the markets next week and not just because more earnings reports will arrive. The Fed holds its first meeting on interest rates of 2010. No one expects the central bank to boost rates, but investors will be looking for the Fed's take on the economy.

Ben Bernanke, whose term as Federal Open Market Committee chairman ends Jan. 31, is still waiting for the Senate to confirm his reappointment to another term. A growing number of senators are blaming the Fed chairman for the nation's economic problems.

Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, was flat at 3.59 percent from late Thursday.

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.875% $100,000-$417,000


FHA-100% VA

5% $100,000-$393,300


100% Guaranteed Rural Housing w/no MI

5.5% $100,000-$417,000

30-Year Jumbo 5/1 ARM (15% down, No MI)

5% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available-Call me)

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Cell: 615-579-8658   Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

"Don't confuse brains with a bull market." -- Humphrey Neill

Visit my real estate website:

http://www.RealCarte.com


Visit my mortgage website:

http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

(0% points, 1% origination, subject to program and lock period. Market Update informs on market trends and is not a quote for a unique borrower.)

Weekend Market Update

Jan. 16-17, 2010

Look out for yourself at this point. Think selfishly for now. Answer this question:

How can I take advantage of the market at this moment? “The market” involves financing real estate, buying and selling real estate and the U.S. Treasury’s gifts to homebuyers.

This may never happen again in our lifetimes---this combination of circumstances, or this “perfect storm,” to borrow a phrase. There is a deadline.

It affects more than first-time homebuyers, who can get up to $8,000 if they buy a home. It offers $6,500 for move-up buyers who purchase up to $800,000 in price. “First-time buyers” is not a literal definition; anyone who has not owned a home in the last three years is considered a first-time buyer.

For a buyer, what more do you need to know, other than prices are low, inventories are plentiful and mortgage rates are in the range of all-time lows?

For a prospective seller, could this be good timing for marketing your home? When first-timers buy, there is a ripple effect up through the market as those sellers get their equity freed up and are enabled to buy, and so on. With the incentive expanded up to $800,000 and including current homeowners, that ripple could become more like a big wave.

Home sales shot up last fall as buyers scrambled to meet the former deadline of Nov. 30. So, we have seen that these incentives can move the market.

The program has been reinstated, while rates are still low, and includes anyone who puts a contract on a home by April 30 and who closes by June 30.

What are you waiting for? Call me for the following:

1—To get pre-approved to buy and to discover the best program and strategy to deploy next.

2—To give you a free refinance scenario, to see if it makes sense to stay put and refinance to get cash out at low rates, or to change to a 15-year term, or to make any type of change that would enhance your financial picture going forward.

3—If you are a seller, to show you the financing options that would help you sell for the most money in the shortest time frame.

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.75% $100,000-$417,000


FHA-100% VA

5% $100,000-$393,300


100% Guaranteed Rural Housing w/no MI

5.5% $100,000-$417,000

30-Year Jumbo 5/1 ARM (15% down, No MI)

5% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available-Call me)

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Cell: 615-579-8658 Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

"Buy when everyone else is selling, and hold until everyone else is buying. This is not merely a catchy slogan. It is the very essence of successful investing." - J. Paul Getty

Visit my real estate website:

http://www.RealCarte.com

Visit my mortgage website:

http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

(0% points, 1% origination, subject to program and lock period. Market Update informs on market trends and is not a quote for a unique borrower.)

Weekend Market Update

Jan. 9-10, 2010

While mortgage rates trended upward for most of December, rates moderated in the first full week of January on speculation that the Fed will extend its program of buying mortgage-backed securites. Treasuries were being bought on Friday on government data that job losses was worse than expected. Bad news about the economy is generally good news for bonds, Treasuries and mortgage-backed secuites as investors put money into those instruments on expectations that a sluggish economy will bear low inflation.

The U.S. Labor Department reported that 85,000 non-farm jobs were lost in December, while analysts had expected better. The news underscored the depth of unemployment, which is hanging at 10%, although a more realistic rate of unemployment would be higher as Americans who have been unemployed for a long time do not count on this report's radar.

Job growth for every decade since 1939 has been in the range of 20%-39%---except for the 10-year period that ended with 2009, which ended essentially unchanged, according to Chart of the Day (http://www.chartoftheday.com/20100108.htm?T).

The Federal Reserve's program of buying mortgages is set to end in March, which may have pushed rates up in December as traders dwelled on the drying-up of that source. However, in recently released minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's last session, the monetary decision makers are hinting that they may have to continue the program to prop up housing. That information correlated with mortgage rates settling back down this week as demand for Treasuries and mortgage-backeds was up.

This sounds like a mantra, but mortgage interest rates remain in the range of historic lows. If you have an opportunity to purchase a home or investment property or to refinance and get cash out (or not), you owe it to yourself to call me to show you the best options. Real estate prices remain depressed with many foreclosures still needing to be worked out of inventories. This condition will not last forever, just as neither will the $8,000 credit for first-time buyers and the $6,500 gift from Uncle Sam for buyers who are not first-timers. Call me to see if you quality for these programs.

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.875% $100,000-$417,000


FHA-100% VA

5.25% $100,000-$393,300


100% Guaranteed Rural Housing w/no MI

5.5% $100,000-$417,000

30-Year Jumbo 5/1 ARM (15% down, No MI)

5% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available-Call me)

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Cell: 615-579-8658  Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

"Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Visit my real estate website:

http://www.RealCarte.com

Visit my mortgage website:

http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

0% points, 1% origination, subject to program and lock period. Market Update informs on market trends and is not a quote for a unique borrower.

Weekend Market Update

Dec. 26-27, 2009

The U.S. Treasury Department picked Christmas Eve to announce that it is increasing the slush fund it has been providing to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to soak up bad loans. Treasury will remove the caps on aid to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the next three years, to allay investor concerns that the companies will exhaust the previously allocated government assistance.

The two companies have caps of $200 billion per year each on backstop capital from the Treasury. Under the new agreement announced on Thursday, these limits can rise as needed to cover net worth losses through 2012.

Treasury says the two aren't likely to need the full $400 billion they'd been offered for 2009, but its authority to expand the guarantee unilaterally expires Dec. 31. The two GSE's (Government-Sponsored Entities) combined have drawn $111 billion of that so far this year.

Reading the tea leaves of this, one thought is that Treasury foresees an extended run of foreclosures. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities were selling off this week, which pushed up interest rates, perhaps as a foretelling of a new cycle of higher rates. The 10-year Treasury rose in yield to 3.81% at the close of this week's trading and seems to be targeting 4% yield, which presents a signal point for mortgage rates, according to my analysis. The 10-year, which generally correlates with mortgage rates, has not crossed 4% all year. The 3.81% is its highest yield since Aug. 7.

Another view is that rates were pressed upward this week as investors pondered the Federal Reserve's recent announcement that their program of buying mortgage loans would expire in March. This support under the market, which the Fed announced in November 2008, triggered the trough in mortgage rates of 4.5% to 5%-something that we have experienced generally ever since.

While money was flowing out of bonds, it was moving into stocks with a so-called Santa Claus rally that pushed all major stock averages to highs for 2009.

Now is the time to be firming plans for real estate and financing for 2010. All is not gloom and doom. We have a window of opportunity at this time. Call me to show you some opportunities you can find in real estate now and to do some "mortgage planning" on your overall financial plan.

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.875% $100,000-$417,000


FHA-100% VA

5.5% $100,000-$393,300


100% Guaranteed Rural Housing w/no MI

5.5% $100,000-$417,000

30-Year Jumbo 5/1 ARM (15% down, No MI)

5% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available-Call me)

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Cell: 615-579-8658 Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

"We are what we believe we are." --C.S. Lewis

Visit my real estate website:

http://www.RealCarte.com

Visit my mortgage website:

http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

(0% points, 1% origination, subject to program and lock period. Market Update informs on market trends and is not a quote for a unique borrower. Reply "remove" with your name and email to discontinue Update.)