Oct. 17, 2007: Conforming loan limits may not increase but at least they’re not going down. And some humor

Oct. 17, 2007: Conforming loan limits may not increase but at least they’re not going down. And some humor Rob Chrisman

Even though home values are sinking in many housing markets, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said yesterday that “under no circumstances” will it decrease the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan limit in 2008. An increase in the loan limit has not been ruled out, especially for certain states, but yesterday’s statement also said that if the usual index used to calculate the conforming loan limits were to be used, it would result in a decline from what was calculated in 2006.

Have you taken the idea of a “Money Party” and applied it to your mortgage business? First Wisconsin Bank & Trust created an innovative sales force, made up largely of women, to hold personal banking parties in people’s homes similar to Tupperware parties. Named “My Money,” the idea is to leverage an untapped sales force in a personal setting to educate a potential customer base.

Down in Arizona builder Cachet Homes has created “Live and Drive in Luxury.” Until October 21, Cachet Homes will offer anyone who purchases an inventory home near Phoenix two-year lease on a Lexus. (They’ve also reduced prices by 20 %.)

Nomura has officially closed the remainder of its U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities business, an area that has seen heavy cuts, noting that it is taking an mortgage-related loss of $621 million for its fiscal second quarter.

Restricted by the index on FHA ARM loans? Not any more! FHA lenders now have the option of using the one-year LIBOR as an index for FHA adjustable-rate and reverse mortgages.

In the market yesterday, we got a little rate improvement after Industrial Production showed a modest increase of +0.1%, and Capacity Utilization dropped slightly to 82.1%. Unfortunately oil continues to climb, attributed to Turkey’s threat to attack Kurds in Iraq that would disrupt oil supplies. The latest price increases haven’t hit the pump yet, but lookout, and fortunately much of the profit that oil companies are making is plowed right back into Treasury securities. Today we saw the Consumer Price Index +.3% with the core rate +.2%, roughly as expected and didn’t move interest rates much. We also had Housing Starts and Building Permits plummet, -10.2% and -7.3% respectively.

George Phillips of Meridian, Mississippi was going up to bed when his wife told him that he’d left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go turn off the light but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things. He phoned the police, who asked “Is someone in your house?” and he said “no”. Then they said that all patrols were busy, and that he should simply lock his door and an officer would be along when available. George said, “Okay,” hung up, counted to 30, and phoned the police again. “Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well, you don’t have to worry about them now because I’ve just shot them” Then he hung up. Within five minutes three police cars, an Armed Response Unit, and an ambulance showed up at the Phillips’ residence and caught the burglars red-handed. One of the Policemen said to George:  “I thought you said that you’d shot them!” George said, “I thought you said there was nobody available!” Supposedly a true story. So don’t mess with old people!