Mortgage Roundup (10/30/20) – Rates, Offices & Refis

Good morning! Today is Friday, October 30. Tech giants including Amazon and Google reported strong quarterly sales and profits that demonstrate pandemic-era demand for their digital services and gadgets. Walmart pulls guns and ammo displays from stores, citing fears of civil unrest and looting. Scientists discover coral reef taller than the Empire State Building in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

And in mortgage and housing news …

MORTGAGE RATES: Mortgage rates increased this week ever so slightly as they continue to hover at historic lows during the Covid-19 pandemic, Freddie Mac announced in its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey

RETURN TO OFFICE: CommercialCafe, a listing site for commercial real estate, says it registered a record number of website visits—even surpassing pre-pandemic records—as online interest in office space surged in August and September. 

REFINANCE: How mortgage refinancing has changed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

GSE INVESTORS: The need for government officials to shape their actions to support a high degree of investor attractiveness by reducing today’s undue policy instability and building a post-conservatorship GSE “business model” is seemingly bipartisan.

PANDEMIC BOOM: Redfin’s CEO expects “absolutely insane” demand in housing market to last into 2021.

MULTI-FAMILY INVESTMENTS: Multi-family commercial real estate investment properties can be lucrative.  

IPO WAVE IMPACT: The wave of nonbanks going public puts pressure on lenders as the newly public companies seek greater brand recognition and growth. 

DC COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE: Many Washington, DC bars and restaurants are going into pandemic winter hibernation, including businesses from the Hilton brothers, José Andrés, and more.

UNFINANCEABLE HOMES: A dearth of credit is starving Detroit’s housing market.  

LEGO BUILDS: Modular construction will make homes affordable.

MORTGAGE FRAUD: Nationally one in 164 mortgage applications, or 0.6 percent of all applications had indications of fraud in the second quarter, compared to one in 123 mortgages, or 0.8 percent, in the second quarter last year, according to CoreLogic.