Forecast for the Week

Economic reports don’t begin until Thursday, but the end of the week features several key data points to note.

• Weekly Initial Jobless Claims will be released on Thursday, as usual.
• Also on Thursday, Retail Sales for February will be released.
• Friday brings the Producer Price Index, which measures wholesale inflation, along with the Consumer Sentiment Index.

Remember: Weak economic news normally causes money to flow out of Stocks and into Bonds, helping Bonds and home loan rates improve, while strong economic news normally has the opposite result. The chart below shows Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), which are the type of Bond on which home loan rates are based.

When you see these Bond prices moving higher, it means home loan rates are improving—and when they are moving lower, home loan rates are getting worse.

To go one step further—a red “candle” means that MBS worsened during the day, while a green “candle” means MBS improved during the day. Depending on how dramatic the changes were on any given day, this can cause rate changes throughout the day, as well as on the rate sheets we start with each morning.

As you can see in the chart below, Mortgage Bonds have declined recently. Home loan rates remain attractive and I will continue to monitor them closely

Chart: Fannie Mae 3.0% Mortgage Bond (Friday March 6, 2015)

The Mortgage Market Guide View…

5 Tips for Spring Cleaning Your Office Space

It may be hard to believe in many parts of the country, but the official start of spring is just a few weeks away. Here are five tips for getting your workspace ready for the season.

Run a zone offense. Be proactive about where you put things. Create zones in your space by function. You could have a zone for where you receive, sort and respond to mail, or a zone where you divide files into meaningful groups, like “act on immediately,” “ongoing projects” and “nice to haves.” By having zones, you can direct new projects, resource materials and correspondence to appropriate places rather than letting them pile up.

Purge and recycle. That stack of newspapers and magazines? If they are time sensitive and you haven’t read them, go ahead and recycle. Have industry magazines? Skim them, rip out relevant articles and then recycle.

Keep VIPs within reach. Reserve prime desk real estate for VIP equipment, supplies and files. Organize your desk, so anything you use every day—throughout the day—is within reach. If you use your stapler often, keep it on the desk. If you only use your tape dispenser every so often, put it in a drawer. Keep what you need an arm’s length away.

Don’t neglect your other desktop. Take care of all those downloads, screen captures and “save as” files that you put on your computer desktop temporarily. Move them to the trash or file appropriately.

Give it a wipe down. The peak of flu season has passed, so get out the disinfecting wipes and give everything a good, thorough cleaning. Wipe down your keyboard, phone and desk surfaces. Dust shelves, picture frames and monitors.

Start spring with a fresh perspective and, as always, feel free to pass this along to your team, clients and colleagues!

Economic Calendar for the Week of March 9 – March 13

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