good morning all...

From a consumer standpoint.............does the 10yr yield have to break 3.0 for 30yr mortgages to break 5%? I know after months of reading this website, there are many, many variables when it comes to setting mortgage rates. Yet the last time the retail rates were sub 5, we were under 3% yield on the 10TSY. Any chance to break 5% on a 30yr at higher yields?

Keefe S, current 30 yr conforming rates are down to 4.875% with no points, if you have 720 fico and under 60% LTV.

Factory orders increased 1.3% in July, slower than the 2.0% growth that economists surveyed by MarketWatch had been looking for. Did we already peak???? What about that second half recovery for 2009? Not happening and now they say late 2009 or early 2010...keep pushing it back and at some point you're bound to be right. Here comes the fall and the bad data that comes with it. Back to school sales were a dud and xmas sales will be too. For the millionth time: you can't buy stuff if you don't have a job and if the banks have cut up your credit cards that makes it worse. Oh and falling wages doesn't help either or that people are being cut from full time and put on part time. How many files in the last 6 months have you had where the borrower or co-b has been put on part time hours? August alone I had 2 files that closed like this....it's a trend folks. Asian car makers had booming sales from cash for clunkers....GM and Chrysler-not so much. Ford did okay but was it the governments goal to see all these sales go to foreign automakers? Short week with the holiday and who's excited about college football starting?

My bank has been stuck around 5.25 for weeks. My loan is a 30Y purchase, single family, HI Fico 800ish, 30% down on a new build in NY. I'm about 120 days out from close. I've seen alot on this website about 4.875 to 5.125 BUT my bank HSBC has not been lower or near 5.0 the entire summer.

Amen Edgar! Recovery? HAH! It is just starting to get bad here in Atlanta. Lots of furloughs and layoffs are hitting. Local governmanet budgets have already been cut to the bone and the only thing left to cut is salaries and benefits costs. Until we create some jobs we are stuck. Tax cuts and/or incentives for businesses is the only thing that can create jobs at this point. Consumer spending is not going to do it.

Keefe: Rates are/ should be lower than that right now. I would wait it out.

I am looking for 15Y fixed in the market. My home is new construction and is 30 days from completion. I am getting 4.375% APR. Shall I wait or lock in. Please provide any advice?

Nice find, Matt. I mentioned Manny Fae and Merry Fac here: http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=9613

Read this one: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aguVgp1QqgEU Am I reading too much into the implications of this? What if others follow suit? Our government at work!

Mayor McGees is coming...

Edgar, great post again. I have had the same experience but 2 loans failed to close as the borrowers were laid off during the process. I have another buyer that just came off his 10% pay cut from the previous 3 months. An attorney down my street dropped by the other day and told me he was laid off....it is hard to cry when an attorney loses his job. There are people out there in careers that previously were untouchable for lay-offs but not anymore.

If the government backed MBS with the explicit full faith and credit clause as suggested in the link, wouldn't that lower mortgage rates and make MBS prices more like t's?