As a kid, my parents lectured me not to take the shortcut to school by shimmying my way under the fence for fear I would cut myself on the sharp edges, but during my grade school years I never really listened to them because what did they know about shortcuts. So one morning I’m working my way under the fence and the bottom part of the metal scratched my arm – probably a 3-4 inch line of blood formed on my forearm. It didn’t hurt but I knew I had to stop the bleeding before my teacher saw it and called home. I ran back into my house telling my mom I forgot a book, snuck into the bathroom, and started rummaging thru the cabinet under the sink where I remembered my sister kept these humongous band-aids. I took off the backing, stuck it to my arm and presto – no more blood. Had I been a few years older I probably would’ve known what I put on my arm was a Stayfree maxi pad. Teachers were coming up to me all day saying things like, “That band-aid really soaks up the blood,” and “That time of the month for cuts, huh, Barry.” Whatever. Glad I was able to entertain them at expense of my injury. What I have learned in life is that every once in a while you have to find ways to stop the bleeding, and it appears that interest rates have stopped their bleeding. For now. More about that below in today’s blog…
Blood Quote of the Day: “When we hate our enemies, we are giving them power of us: power over our sleep, our appetites, our blood pressure, our health, and our happiness.” – Dale Carnegie
Wuss’up This Week: Every day reports about our economy are released into the wild, and it’s these reports that can sway interest rates in either direction. Today we’ve got the Fed’s Beige Book Report (*BTW – interesting interview with Fed Chief Jerome Powell last week on 60 Minutes where he predicted our economy to really take off in the 2nd half the year – great for America, not so great for rates as good news tends to drive them up), tomorrow Jobless Claims, and on Friday Housing Starts and Consumer Sentiment.
Interest Rate Update: In the summer of last year 30yr fixed rates were in the middle-2s. Then February 2021 slapped us in the face with freezing wind chills and rates going up faster than I ever remembered in my 20 years of writing loans. One day rates were at 2.75%, I went outside to shovel my walkway, and when I came back inside rates had jumped to 3.125% in less than an hour. Lesson learned: Makes your kids shovel. Rates are still bouncing up and down but seem to have found their happy place – as of this writing both 30yr conforming and jumbo rates are in the low-3s, 15yr fixed conforming (*$548k or less) in the low-to-mid 2s, and jumbo ARMs in the mid-to-upper 2s. As usual, rates will vary based on if it’s a purchase or refinance, type of home, equity in the home, your credit score, and if you want to learn 50 new things today https://www.boredpanda.com/today-i-learned-fact-knowledge/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter .
Don’t Forget to Remember: For all purchase and refinance loans I will waive $575 in lender fees! Grab yourself a cup of instant karma and pass my info along to any friends, family, coworkers, or accidental camouflagers https://www.boredpanda.com/accidental-camouflage-pics/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter
Blood Quote of the Day 2: “I see TV ads about detergents that can get blood stains out of your clothes. I say if you have bloodstains on your clothes you should be thinking about something other than laundry.” – Jerry Seinfeld
Timeout for Trivia: Congrats to those who last week guessed Katy Perry. Want to be entered into a drawing to win Olympic Lifting Avocado Socks https://www.redbubble.com/i/socks/OLYMPIC-LIFTING-Avocado-by-Huebucket/31886637.9HZ1B ? Simply email me the answer to this week’s Who Am I? question. Good luck: “It was on this date in 2013 I was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in California. Not funny, right? You know what else wasn’t funny – Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4, but you can’t blame me for a cash grab early in my career. Since then I’ve been in other movies that didn’t do great either but maybe you saw them. Remember the two-word title of a movie in 2015 (it could also be the title of an adult movie) I starred in with an SNL alum? Or maybe you saw a movie I wrote, produced, and starred in that was released in 2018 – that could be retitled After Hours Academy. You know what you didn’t see me in: A show I stepped down from because of homophobic tweets ten years ago. I swear I have changed but ask Oscar, he’ll tell you I did the right thing.”
