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Mortgage Rates At
Six Month
Lows
In Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage
Market Survey the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage
(FRM) averaged 5.64 percent, with an average 0.7
points, for the week ending October 28, 2004.
Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged
6.05 percent.
One-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate
mortgages (ARMs) averaged 3.96 percent, with an
average 0.8 point. At this time last year, the
one-year ARM averaged 3.76 percent. According
too Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief
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economist, "Low
mortgage rates drove the uptick in sales during
September. And with mortgage rates at their
lowest level in six months, home sales should
continue strong through the autumn months.
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Home Computers Crawling With Digital
Spies
 Most home computers are infected
with so many spyware programs surreptitiously
monitoring online activities, it's enough to make
your skin crawl.
It's
also enough to raise concerns about national
security. A Homeland Security Department backed
study of 329 Internet computer users found 80% of
their computers were infected. Using viruses,
remote attacks, and drone machines, a single
attacker could mobilize thousands of compromised
computers from unsuspecting users. This study
highlights just how important it is to take
cyber-security seriously, not just as a matter of
personal safety, but as a matter of our country's
security as well. |
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Income Growth to Keep Pace With
Adjustable Rate Mortgages
A new report states that income
growth over the next two years will help borrowers
make payments on hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages
(ARMs), even if their fixed-rate and interest-rate
only periods expire simultaneously.
The report by Michael
Youngblood, an analyst with Friedman, Billings,
Ramsey & Co., discounts some experts who fret
that borrowers of ARM loans, which require only
interest payments during the initial years of the
loan, will have difficulty making the payments
after the initial period.
The report insists
that income growth will outpace the rise in
payments over the next two years. | |
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Homeownership,
Home Sales
Jump
 More Americans than ever -- 73.7 million
-- own their own home.
U.S.
Census Bureau data released this month says the current
number is 323,000 more than the previous record high set
in the second quarter of 2004 and nearly 1.6 million
more than a year ago.
"These numbers combined with news that sales of
previously owned homes jumped 3.1 percent in September,
show that housing continues to lead the way in our
rapidly recovering economy," said Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson.
Sales of existing
single-family homes, rose again to a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of 6.75 million units in September, after
two consecutive monthly declines, according to the
National Association of Realtors. The sales pace is the
third-highest pace on record and 1 percent above the
6.68-million pace of a year ago, NAR said.
Mortgage rate declines
since June get the credit for higher sales.
"Since 1971 there have been
only five months when mortgage interest rates were
lower, and all of those have been during the last year
and a half," said David Lereah, NAR's chief economist.
"The good news is that interest rates have been fairly
stable over the last month, hovering near generational
lows, and that is increasing the purchasing power of
buyers trying to get into the housing market."
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