This week’s Interest Rate (15th Week)
(By Fairway Home Loan/ Time Mortgage)
30 yr fx(%) | 15 yr fx(%) | FHA(%) | 10 yr Tr Y (%) | |
A year ago | 3.625 | 3/125 | 3.375 | 0.687 |
A month ago | 2.875 | 2.375 | 2.500 | 1.359 |
Last week | 3.000 | 2.375 | 2.750 | 1.665 |
This week | 2.999 | 2.255 | 2.625 | 1.664 |
Prime Rate:3.0% / Ref IR: 0.00- 0.25%
- Self-employed borrower: Need to prepare 3 month business bank statements and the YTD Profit and Loss Statement. YTD income can’t decline more than 30% compared to last year.
- Interest rates is upward trend as of now. Investment property and the 2nd home product’s interest rate went up more than a primary residence. Fannie and Freddie are making a big adjustment for the program.
- 2021 Conventional loan limit: Conforming: $548,250/ Conforming high balance: $882,375
Some counties in NJ including Bergen county began foreclosure sales
(Korea Times 4/14 )
- Bergen county sheriff department website announced that they restart the foreclosure sale from 2pm on 4/9. The department said that they do auction sales for those houses without eviction or no tenants.
- Because the eviction process is not allowed till 6/19, even auction has been processed, new owner cannot evict the tenant till then.
- Currently 191,000 people might be facing the eviction due to foreclosure or no rent payments after the executive order ends. The number of court files for eviction is 58,861 between April 2020 and March 2021.
New York decided rental broker fee is due to renters
(Korea Daily 4/14)
- The State court has turned down the executive order that the rental broker fee should be paid by landlord, which reverts back to previous practice: tenants pay the broker fees.
- After New York State announced the executive order 2 years ago, REBNY had appealed the injunction order to halt.
That suburban home buyer could be a foreign Investor
(WSJ 4/14 )
- Big foreign investment firms are joining with U.S. housing companies to buy or build rental homes by thousands. In suburban neighborhoods near cities such as Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix, blocks of families are sending monthly checks to ventures backed by Canadian pension funds, European insurers, and Asian or Middle Eastern government-run funds.
- The overseas investors are following in the footsteps of many U.S. investment firms and pension funds, which started buying single-family homes on a large scale in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Foreign investors barely registered in these markets a few years ago. Now they account for nearly a third of institutional investment in single-family rental homes, said Alex Foshay, head of international capital markets at real estate service firm Newmark.
- The sector became even more attractive amid the pandemic and remote work, when more young professionals turned to the suburbs for greater space.
Johnson and Johnson shots halted in U.S. over rare clotting effect
(NYT 4/14)
- Injections of J & J’s coronavirus vaccine came to a sudden halt across the country on Tuesday after federal health agencies called for a pause in the vaccine’s use as they examine a rare blood-clotting disorder that emerged in six recipients.
- The concern about J&J’s vaccine mirror those about AstraZeneca’s. European regulators began investigating that vaccine last month after some recipients developed blood clots and low platelet counts like those of the J & J recipients. Of 34 M people who received AstraZeneca’s shots in Britain, the European Union and three other countries , 222 experienced blood clots linked to a low level platelets.
- Both use adenoviruses to carry DNA into human cells to begin the process of generating immunity to the coronavirus.
Asian population is increased fastest pace in US.
(Korea Daily 4/13)
- According to Pew Research Center report, Asian population has grown with the fastest pace in US between 2000 and 2019, which grew 81% from 10.5M to 18.9M while US total population grew 20%.
- If it is the same pace, Asian population will reach to 27.9M in 2040 and 35.8M in 2060.
- Hispanic population grew 70% from 35.6M to 60.57M which was the 2nd place. African American population grew 20% in the same period while White population grew about 1% which means no changes.
- California has the biggest Asian population which is 5.9M and New York has 1.7M and Texas has 1.5M, New Jersey has 870,000, Illinois has 730,000. Total 56% of Asian live in these 5 states.
- In the same period, Asian in New York grew 56% and 76% in New Jersey.
Biden Admin set up $100B to provide the rebate to EV owners
(Korea Times 4/13 )
- Reuter reported that Biden Admin set up the total of $174B for EV investment funds. Among the funds, $100B will be used for rebates to new EV purchasers. Also $15B will be spent to install 500,000 electric charger stations. In addition, $20B will be used for electric school buses, $25B for public transportation with zero carbon foot print, and $14B for other tax incentives.
- Currently tax reduction is up to $7,500 for EV purchase which will be expected to increase to $10,000 soon.
- In US, about 300,000 EVs were sold and it will be increase continually.
America becomes world economic leader again out of COVID-19
(Korea Daily 4/12)
- IMF chief economist mentioned that it is more evident to see the world is coming out of economic and health crisis while IMF watched the world economy has recovered by V shape and expected US economy booming with economy stimulus packages.
- US experienced negative growth of 3.5% in 2020, but forecasted 6.4% growth in 2021 and 3.5% in 2022 respectively. This year’s growth forecast has been adjusted 1.3% higher in Jan and also it was adjusted 3.3% higher than Oct. IMF expected US expansion policy will provide trickle down effect to the world economy and US becomes an important economic engine for world economy.
- IMF reported that the world manufacturing has shown V shape recovery last year. A good example was auto industry: it had 40% down in April 2020, but it showed full recovery in December and auto industry took 35% of world wide recovery activities. Also home appliances, computers and electronic equipment due to WFH, and personal protection gear have contributed positively to economic recovery.
- Wider income gap between advanced countries and under development countries: yearly GDP loss per person between 2020 -2024 in lower income countries is 5.7%, GDP loss in newly developed countries is 4.7% and GDP loss in advanced countries is 2.3%. Last year, additional 95M people become under extreme poverty level.
- The more vaccine spreads, the faster economy recovery: vaccination and controlling virus spreads become the most important factor for the world economy recovery. From the scenario that vaccine distribution become 10 % faster than expectation and the current vaccine is effective for virus variant, this year’s growth rate will increase 0.5% more and next year 1% additionally. But from the scenario that vaccine distribution becomes slow and virus variants spread widely, this year’s growth rate will drop 1.5% and next year 1% respectively.
Consumer prices leap, with big jump in Gas
(WSJ 4/14 )
- S. consumer prices rose sharply in March as the economy recovery gained momentum, marking the start of an expected monthlong pickup in inflation pressures.
- The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its consumer-price index – which measures what consumers pay for everyday items including groceries, clothing, recreational activities and vehicles – jumped 2.6% in the year ended March, the biggest 12-month increase since August 2018, and rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in March from February.
- Nearly half of the monthly increase was due to a 9.1% jump on gasoline prices, which have climbed partly due to production problems following winter storms, economists said.
- Some economists see rising risks that inflation could keep accelerating more than Fed officials expect, forcing them to raise interest rates sooner than anticipated to cool price down. Meantime, rising production costs are already pushing up prices of many households goods.
Others/Tech News : MS purchased Nuance Communications at $16B
- Nuance Communications is a tech company who combines AI and Speech recognition technology.
- This purchase is the 2nd biggest one after MS purchased LinkedIn at $27B last year.