Long Grove Mortgage Bancorp NMLS# 210846

01/26/2025

Rates are finally starting to come back down and Lenders have very low refinance cost programs along with buy down options on rates. It's time to start winding down those high rates with low to no closing cost and closing at your home and at your convenience.

07/10/2023

BLS Jobs Report
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that were 209,000 jobs created in June, which was weaker than expectations of 240,000. Additionally, there were 110,000 in negative revisions to April and May. Leisure and hospitality only added 21,000 jobs, a stark contrast to yesterday’s ADP report that showed over 200,000 gains in that sector. Government added 60,000 and Healthcare/Education added 73,000. A negative for the Bond market was Average hourly earnings, which measures wage pressured inflation. They were up 0.4% in June, which was one tenth hotter than estimates of 0.3%. Year over year, average hourly earnings were up 4.4%, which is unchanged from the upwardly revised reading last month. Average weekly hours worked increased one tenth from 34.3 hours to 34.4. Average weekly earnings rose 0.7% and are now up 3.7% year over year, up from 3.5% in the previous report. Before the latest ADP and BLS employment reports for June, the BLS job gains were roughly 900,000 higher than ADP. But after the blockbuster ADP report yesterday, and weaker BLS figure today, with negative revisions, that difference has been cut to 500,000. It’s unclear, but there may have been an adjustment to ADP to narrow the gap and catch up to BLS. Remember, there are two surveys within the Jobs report, the Business Survey and the Household Survey. The Business Survey is where the headline job creation number comes from and includes a lot of modelling and estimations. The Household Survey is where the unemployment rate comes from and is derived from calling households to see if they are employed. The Household Survey has its own job creation component, and it showed that there were 273,000 job creations, while the labor force increased by 133,000. This caused the unemployment rate to fall from 3.7% to 3.6%...but it did increase from 3.4% two months ago. Even with the 273,000 job creations last month, jobs are still running negative over the last two months because the previous report saw 310,000 job losses. While the u-3 unemployment rate decreased, the all in u-6 unemployment rate increased from 6.7% to 6.9%. This increased because it includes those part time for economic reasons and those that have not looked for a job over the last 4 weeks. Multiple job holders increased by 233,000, while Part time for economic reasons increased 452,000. Those that could only find part time was up 122,000. Bottom line – all of the gains came from part time workers or those

05/25/2023

This site shows current inflation data and it has been dropping significantly. Why is the Fed. looking at the past?

Introductory pricing in effect. Prices may change dramatically in the future, but for now we are pricing this data to be as accessible as possible.

05/17/2023

I have a calculator to determine if you should consolidate credit card, car loan and other debt with you current mortgage. This will show if it is warrantable to do a cash out refi.

05/03/2023

Federal Reserve just raised the Fed Funds rate by 0.25% as they continue to look at where we have been instead of where we are and going. Mortgage rates will continue to follow the downward trend in rate. I locked two purchase mortgages at 5.999% at no origination fee.

So like my last post your credit card and other financing rates just went up and it is time to discuss debt consolidation.

05/01/2023

It is time to look at debt consolidation as rates have backed down to around 6%. So look at credit card debt, car loans and HELOC rates which have sky rocketed. call me to discuss if this is makes sense for you.

03/23/2023

Existing Home Sales
Existing Home Sales, which measures closings on existing homes, showed that sales were up almost 15% in February at a 4.5M unit annualized pace, which was much stronger than the estimates of a 5% gain. On a year over year basis, sales are down 22%...but much less than the 37% in January. Inventory levels remained at a very low 980,000, but are up 15% year over year. The Media made a huge deal about this, but when looking with some perspective, they are up 15% from a record low level of inventory at 850k last year. There is a 2.6 Months’ supply of homes, which is tight, because 4.6 months is considered normal. But if you look at active listings, there are only 578,000 - When looking at the month’s supply of available homes for sale, it’s really 1.5 months. The median sales price of $363,700 is up 1.3% on the month but down for the first time in a long time on a year over year basis by 0.2%. Diana Olick made this sound like a huge deal, but either doesn’t understand what median price is or wants to intentionally be misleading to get views. Remember, the median home price is not appreciation, but rather the middle priced home. That means that if more lower priced homes are selling, this number will fall. You could have all home prices increase, but the median price fall, if more concentration of sales were on the lower end. Actual appreciation is up 8.4% year over year according to FHFA and 5.8% according to Case Shiller. And when looking at the breakdown of sales, you saw an increase in homes sold between $0-$100k and $100k to $250k, while you saw decreases in the higher categories. This is the reason the median price fell. Homes remained on the market on average for 34 days, with 57% of homes on the market for less than 30 days. If the home is priced right, it is selling. First Time Home Buyers have accounted for 27% of sales, which was down from 31% in the previous report. Cash buyers accounted for 28% of sales, which was down from 29%. Investors made up 18% of transactions, up from 16%. They made up roughly one out of every five transactions…Clearly investors are seeing the opportunity in housing right now. Multiple offers and purchases above asking price picked up – It seems investors see that rates are going to come down, and with the tight inventory environment, they expect a good return as appreciation will start picking up when activity returns.

03/22/2023

The Federal Reserve raised the Fed Funds rate by 0.25% and have changed their language indicating this might be the end of rate hikes. This was caused be the SVB and other Banks defaulting last week. The bad news is the Fed's bailed out the banks by buying their distressed bonds purchased a couple of years ago that dropped significantly with the recent rise in rates. The good news is Mortgage rates continue to decline from a week ago at 7% now back down to 6%. Call for details 847-634-2252

03/09/2023

Tomorrow the unemployment rate comes out. Look for revisions in last months report and I anticipate rates to start coming back down.

03/06/2023

Rates have gone up and are currently right around 7%.
So here is a scenario to think about as an option.

Purchase, Single Family Residence @$550,000, 800 middle score
20% down vs. 15% down and the 5% buying down the rate.

Based on todays pricing.

A SFR with 20% down on $550,000 purchase price would be a mortgage of $440,000 and a rate of 6.957% with a monthly payment of $2914.64

If they put 15% down and apply the other 5% to buy down the rate they could have a $467,500 Mortgage with a 5.125% rate and monthly payment of $2584.44

Same amount of Dollars but $330.20 less in monthly payment including mortgage insurance.

11/24/2022

Happy Thanksgiving from the bottom of our hearts! Thankful for the privilege of serving our community for the past 30 years. Hope you are as filled with gratitude as we are!

10/17/2022

Another home run! Well done Chris!