Wholesale Inventories (Jan)

Looking to see if there’s any inventory building in Q1 after the big fall off in Q4 after the run up in Q3 etc…

You can save about 100 bps by waiting for the extended limits for jumbos to kick in:

Hurdles for Jumbo Borrowers

by Jennifer Woods

For starters, if you’re looking in certain high-cost metropolitan areas such as New York, Los Angeles, Boston or San Francisco, you may want to sit tight for a few weeks.

That’s because a measure in the fiscal stimulus package recently signed into law by President Bush that will temporarily change the guidelines on what constitutes a jumbo mortgage.

As it stands, mortgages above $417,000 on single-family homes are considered “jumbo” , or non-conforming, in that they are not backed by federal mortgage entities, and carry higher rates than conforming mortgages which are below $417,000.

The new bill, however, allows that amount to be bumped up — in some areas to as much as about $729,750. The actual guidelines were set March 6 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“It makes huge sense to wait [for the guidelines to be determined] said Fenton Soliz, president and chief executive of Mortgage Experts. “You might qualify for substantially more money at a lower rate,” he said.

The current average for a 30-year fixed mortgage is 5.90 percent, compared to 6.88 percent for a 30-year fixed jumbo mortgage.