Welcome to the 571^st Weekly Mortgage Update and we wanted to lead off this week with a thank you for your referrals, your closings, and clients, as we wrapped up a great month in August and are really excited to start September (also excited about football season).



Before we get to watching football and the rest of the full update, wanted to put our reminder in here again about our network of AWESOME trusted, locally owned, and operated companies to connect you to in order to help. Whether you need help with a handy man project, HVAC help (it’s been HOT, or you need a dumpster for your empty nester clean out (sorry kids), reach out to us so that you don't have to worry... just give us a call! Don't risk just calling a random provider, you may end up not getting the best deal and seeing double!

Now, back to the update. This week, rates bounced around worsening slightly and we're hoping for improvement in the coming weeks. The rates are shown just above the trivia question. If you have questions about how these rates apply to your situation, let's talk. But gang as usual, there is LOTS GOING ON, SO LET'S GET STARTED!

FOOTBALL MAGNETS

HAPPY COLLEGE COLORS DAY, celebrating the start of another great College Football season, especially given the Wake Forest Demon Deacon win last night! So, to all who celebrate the start of football, wanted to make sure everyone who needs the MOST COLLECTIBLE football magnet in all of the land, Gets their own MOST COLLECTIBLE football magnet in all the land. If you’d like first, or need to add one to your collection, let us know. We have a few extra, so first come first serve, while supplies last. HAPPY FOOTBALLING! ROLL TIDE!! WAR EAGLE!! And GO DEACS!! 

CRAZY STORIES

With it being the first FULL weekend of college football, we found out about this crazy story while watching a Thursday Night thriller between your Demon Deacons of Wake Forest and the Akron Zips. It was a home game for Wake, who beat the Zips in the friendly confines of their stadium in Winston-Salem. Next week, when Akron plays it’s first home game against Robert Morris, there will be a new coach on the sidelines helping out the Zips. No one got fired following the game last night, as this may even be wilder!

Akron ran a wild promotion this summer called "Offensive Coordinator of the Game," giving one lucky season ticket holder the chance to help head coach Joe Moorhead script the Zips opening drive. The winner is Marty Whims II, an Akron grad and longtime season ticket holder who, according to the picture below, happens to work as a CFO for Tony Stark or IRON MAN in Cleveland! Whether that’s the same company or not, Whims WILL get to help call and plan plays during the opening series of the September 12 home opener against Robert Morris. Why would a school do this? Well, the contest blew up online, pulling in over 23 MILLION social media views and a wave of new season ticket sales. Talk about a viral campaign and good luck to Marty! GO ZIPS and click below to read more about this one.

REAL ESTATE TO BEHOLD



We talked about food, so a house called the HAM AND CHEESE house, was a shoe in to be featured by our editors. Palm Beach’s historic estate nicknamed the Ham and Cheese House, thanks to its alternating coral and brick exterior, just listed for a cool $105 million. Officially called Casa Eleda, the home was designed in 1928 by architect Maurice Fatio for banker Mortimer Schiff and his wife Adele. Eleda is simply Adele spelled backward. Former Xerox executive Marion Antonini and his wife Penny bought the place in 2013 for just under $16 million and spent years restoring it, earning a preservation award along the way. The Italian Romanesque style home has seven bedrooms, over 13,000 square feet, and a secret tunnel running from the house to a private beach cabana. With 150 feet of ocean frontage, the listing agent says the land alone is worth $60 million. Check it out below.

“And the answer is, Flying Paster Lane, Adelaide California.” You could ring in and say, “What is an amazing property?” Our editors HAD to introduce this one that way, as it is the former house of the late icon, Alex Trebek. The property is called Windfall Farms, which our editors don’t think was ever a Jeopardy category, but Windfall has a nicer ring than Potpourri Farms or Potent Potable Ranch. Trebek owned the land until the early 2000s before it became a working vineyard estate. Originally listed for $33 million, the 700 acres of rolling vineyard and hills is under contract for $16.9 million. The sale closed during Monterey Car Week, proving that even a legendary game show host's old stomping grounds (vineyard dad joke?) can come with a surprise final answer. If you answered, “What is a heck of a deal, Alex?” You would be correct. Click below to read more!

Final one is a weird one. We’ve partnered with several real estate agents’ open houses and some progressive open houses, where you move from houses to house seeing the sites and amenities and moving from house to house. But gang, we’ve NEVER had a property that ITSELF did the moving.

A massive floating island, covered in full grown trees, showed up on Williston Lake in northern British Columbia this summer, and nobody knows where it came from. Local boater Rocky Avery spotted the forested mass drifting through the water and posted it online, where it quickly went viral. BC Hydro officials say the island is roughly the size of two football fields, and they believe record high water levels finally broke it free after years stuck along the shoreline.

Then things got stranger. By early August, the island had completely vanished from satellite view. Just when everyone assumed it sank or broke apart, BC Hydro tracked it down again, floating about 19 miles from where it was last seen. Turns out the wind, not the current, has been steering this drifting getaway. One thing is certain: this island gets around better than one of our editors after she falls asleep on the couch. Just don't try to make an offer, it might not stay put long enough to close or pull title work. Click below to see more.

THE ECONOMY AND REAL ESTATE

Friday morning brought a surprise for us before the long weekend. The August jobs report showed that the overall economy added 162,000 jobs, which was a pretty good SKOSH more than the 53,000 most economists expected. Unemployment held steady at 4.1%. Interestingly, prior months got a boost too, with July flipping from a loss of 23,000 jobs to a gain of 21,000. On paper, it looks like a strong report across the board, with gains led by restaurants, entertainment, and manufacturing.



But gang, the bond markets did not fully buy in. The 10-year Treasury yield only moved slightly after the news. Which our editors took as a sign investors are treating this number with a SKOSH of caution. Government job numbers have faced a lot of scrutiny lately, and August is historically a month that in some cases gets revised down later. Comparing this report to private payroll reports like ADP or Revelio, which BOTH showed job gains closer to the 37,000 to 38,000 range, the difference is hard to ignore.

For mortgage rates, this kind of mixed signal often means smaller moves rather than big swings. All eyes now turn to next week's inflation data, which will carry more weight heading into the Fed's September 16 meeting. Click to read more, below.

We talk about bonds and T-bills a lot in this newsletter, especially when discussing mortgage rates, so here is a quick breakdown from a great article we found to explain all of them. Treasury bills, notes, and bonds are all loans investors make to the U.S. government, and the biggest difference between them is simply how long the government holds onto the money. T-bills are short term, lasting a year or less. T-notes sit in the middle, running two to ten years. T-bonds are the long-haul option, stretching out twenty to thirty years. All three pay the investor back with interest, though bills work a little differently by selling at a discount instead of paying interest along the way.



Speaking of long term, some bonds take patience to a whole new level… like a 375 year old perpetual bond from the Netherlands that Yale University now owns that was first issued by the crazy folks at Hoogheemraadschap Lekdijk Bovendams way back in 1648! Talk about LONG TERM investments. Not all bonds come anywhere close to that duration. Read more below. 

We talked a FAIR amount about Football in this week’s update. Apologies, to my friend that refers to football, basketball, baseball all as “sportsball.” But Football and fall go together, and it turns out nearly as well as buying a house in the fall. Lots of folks think Spring and Summer are peak times to buy and for many folks’ schedule, which is true. Our friends at Keeping Current Matters seem to think that Fall may be a pretty good time to move as well, with their story titled, Why Buyers Shouldn't Overlook a Fall Move. Keep reading below.

While everyone watches mortgage rates, savvy buyers know the season itself can work in their favor. Hannah Jones, Senior Economist at Realtor.com, says the best time to buy window usually falls in early fall.

More Homes To Choose From

Fall usually brings the largest pool of homes for sale all year. Spring and summer listings do not all sell right away, so inventory keeps building as the months go on. More choices mean less settling for a home that is just okay. (see graph below)

Asking Prices Start To Drop

Sellers price high in spring and summer when buyer demand peaks. By fall, buyer activity slows, so sellers adjust their prices to attract attention. That shift works in your favor as the HousingWire data shows this trend over time (see graph below):

More Sellers Are Willing To Negotiate

Fall also brings more motivated sellers hoping to close before the holidays. With fewer buyers competing, you get more room to ask for a better deal. NAR puts it simply: "Less competition can lead to better deals." Even a small price break matters. A 5% cut on a $500,000 home saves $25,000, money that could lower your loan amount or free up cash for moving costs.

Bottom Line

Every market is different, but fall consistently delivers more homes, better prices, and motivated sellers. If you have been waiting for the right moment, this season is worth a look.

Let's connect and talk about what fall could mean for your home search.

RATES:

Pricing and rates remain erratic and volatile. Confirm rates & pricing directly with your loan officer.

Check out the trivia below and remember, there is a drawing to enter to win a gift card. This is your chance to enter for a chance to win the gift card awarded every other month. This trivia question is for the September & October drawing/card.

TRIVIA QUESTION

We’re going with an NCAA Football in the style of Jeopardy this week. And your clue is Played in Pasadena, the Rose Bowl game is nicknamed “The Granddaddy of Them All,” first played in 1902 and played every year in Pasadena, EXCEPT when it was played on the campus of this university in 1942 where the Oregon State Beavers emerged victorious, 20-16:

A) What is Wake Forest?

B) What is University of Alabama?

C) What is Duke University?

D) What is Georgia Tech?

E) What is the Ohio State University? 

Click here to EMAIL ME YOUR ANSWER.

**Email your answer to me to have your name entered in a drawing for a gift card at the beginning of even months and YES you can go back and answer previous weeks’ questions if you have not answered them already AND if we have not unveiled the answer yet***