Tag Archives: housing market

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Leave it to Kleber: Housing and the Election

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Special Guest

Steven_Kleber_Headshot_2-187x269Steve Kleber

of

Kleber & Associates,

joins The Housing Hour this week to talk about the 2016 presidential elections and how the candidate’s policies could affect the housing market. Steve is an expert in national housing trends and shares his expertise on topics for this show which include:

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  • Challenges facing the next administration when it comes to housing
  • Who voters believe will be best for the housing market
  • Candidates housing plan comparison 
  • Which candidate would be best for new residential construction
  • Which candidate is better for solar energy

Be sure to check out the entire Series:

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Also check out Steve Kleber’s blogs:

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Steve founded Kleber and Associates in 1987. An Atlanta-based full-service marketing agency which specializes in the home and building channel, K&A works in partnership with a variety of clients who market premium products for both residential and commercial applications that are targeted to consumers, architects, developers, builders, remodelers, designers and manufacturers.

Steve is a passionate force driving his agency to consider non-traditional marketing approaches and alliances with key influencers to add impact to marketing and sales efforts.

K&A also regularly collaborates with marketing research partners to explore emerging trends in generational and consumer purchasing groups. Some of Steve’s recent presentations and original white papers include an exploration of the trend in Small Spaces, the Missing Male in marketing and product development circles, social media and search as it relates to ROI, and consumer trends in relation to specific demographic groups.

Steve is the president of the National Remodeling Foundation, promoting excellence in the field and providing support to younger generations entering it. He is the immediate past president of the National Kitchen & Bath Association’s Center for Kitchen and Bath Education and Research, a non-profit foundation created for the purpose of educating and cultivating future leaders in the kitchen and bath industry.

 

 

General, Shows

A Market Discussion

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Topics:

Economy

FNMA/Freddie Mac

Future of Mortgage Lending

A Market Discussion

RateLink opened its doors in May 1994 with a mission to provide mortgage professionals with timely and accurate data as a means to a competitive advantage. While our customer base and product offerings have grown considerably since our early days, we still maintain our founding commitment to customer satisfaction and the delivery of quality data at a fair price.

Eric Holloman is the President and founder of RateLink. Prior to creating RateLink, Eric worked for many years in Secondary Marketing for a major National Mortgage Corporation in which he ran the mandatory and best efforts commitment desks, set daily pricing, securitized and sold bonds, and negotiated with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Eric used the knowledge obtained from his Secondary Marketing years to create an industry first market reporting system that takes complex pricing calculations and conveys them to mortgage professionals in a quick, clear, and concise method that many have since tried to imitate.  10,000+ clients use the RateLink service each year.

Our philosophy on the markets

We don’t hire psychics. No one knows what interest rates are going to do next week. If they did, they would trade bonds from their private island. If you see someone suggesting they know, watch out. All the pretty charts and economic analysis in the world can’t predict the future of rates.

The goal is to increase income and minimize anxiety. Let’s be clear, there is a distinct difference between gambling and taking calculated risks. If you are inclined to gamble, we suggest you visit Las Vegas. At least the casino serves you free drinks when you are at the gaming tables. If you are gambling at your desk, you have to provide the refreshments.

Gambling is closing your eyes and hoping for the best. On the other hand, taking calculated risks can increase your income and reduce your anxiety. In order to make good decisions you need good information, which is exactly what RateLink provides.

Timing is one of the most important factors in success. Unfortunately, knowing the perfect time to lock in a loan is impossible until after the fact. However, there is a guiding principle that can help everyone make the best decision.

Our philosophy is to keep your pipeline covered. When a borrower’s loan is floating, there is a 67% chance that the outcome will not be desirable.

The prudent person locks in when the numbers are acceptable to everyone involved in the transaction. There are three things that can happen following the lock: rates can fall, rates can stay the same, and rates can rise. If rates fall, everybody loses. If rates stay the same, everybody wins. If rates rise, everybody wins. Two of the three possible outcomes are positive.

Let’s look at the same situation without locking. If rates fall, everybody wins. If rates rise, everybody loses. If rates stay the same, everybody loses because they wasted time, energy, sleep, and other valuable resources worrying about what interest rates were going to do.

There are three pieces of the puzzle that must be analyzed in order to make good float lock decisions.

  • You must have access to mortgage backed security information.
  • You must know what the mortgage backed securities have done since pricing was set.
  • You must know what economic news or world events are coming out the following day that could cause the bond market to react

RateLink provides you the tools necessary to make prudent decisions. Using the RateLink service will increase your income and reduce anxiety.

Edutorials, General

Housing to Drive Economic Growth (Finally!)

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Economists expect the housing market to be the primary driver of growth this year.

The bursting of the housing bubble plunged the economy into a recession from which it has yet to fully recover. But economists say this could finally be the year that housing lifts us out of the doldrums.

Just over half of economists surveyed by CNNMoney identified a housing recovery as the primary driver of economic growth this year. The rest were split fairly evenly between consumer spending, increased domestic energy production and stimulus from the Federal Reserve as major growth drivers.

“Homebuilding activity will likely remain the strongest growing component of the economy in 2013,” said Keith Hembre, chief economist of Nuveen Asset Management. “After several years of excess supply, demand and supply conditions are now in much better balance.”

Home sales rebounded to the strongest level in five years in 2012, as home building bounced back to levels not seen since early in the recession. Near record low mortgage rates, rising home prices and a drop in foreclosures have combined to bring buyers back to the market.

The economists surveyed also forecast that there will be just under 1 million housing starts this year — roughly matching the 28% rise in home building in 2012. Moody’s Analytics is forecasting much stronger growth — a 50% rise both this year and next year, which it estimates will create more than 1 million new jobs.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand for housing, and very little supply,” said Celia Chen, housing economist for Moody’s Analytics. “As demand continues to improve, home builders have nothing to sell. They’ll have to build.” She said that growth in building will mean adding not just construction jobs, but also manufacturing jobs building the appliances and furniture needed in the new homes, which in turn drives overall consumption higher.

And economists say the tight supply and renewed demand for housing should lead to higher home values — about a 3.7% increase according to the survey.

“One of the most significant indirect effects from the housing recovery is the ‘wealth effect’ on consumers due to the recovery in home prices,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist of Deutsche Bank, who said better home values can affect both consumer psychology on spending as well as their actual finances.

“Even small moves in home prices can have large effects on consumption, because housing comprises such a significant share of household assets,” he said.

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