What a Week!

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From: Pansire, Diane - MA [Diane.Pansire@GMACM.COM]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 1:19 PM
Subject: What a Week!

Recap for the week of January 21-25:

• Monday: The US markets were closed in honor of the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday, so it was a quiet day here, but foreign markets fell sharply. As a response to the tumbling worldwide markets and fears about the US economy, the Fed held an emergency meeting on Monday night and decided to lower 2 key interest rates by .75, rather than wait until there regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 29-30.

• Tuesday: The US market awoke to the news and mortgage rates fell a little bit, and the stock opened sharply lower and only recovered slightly.

• Wednesday: In response to the previous days market, and another sharp drop in the market, for the first half of the day we saw extremely low mortgage rates, around 5.25% for a 30 year fixed rate with no points. But the market rallied and by the end of the day rates went back up to 5.75%.

• Thursday: Rates climbed further on news that the President and Congressional leaders had worked out a fiscal stimulus package. A feature of the package that interests all of us working in real estate is the increase in limits on FNMA loans. It is said to be as high as $725,000 for high cost areas. That means more buyers will get the lowest rates, and not have to pay the higher 'jumbo' rates. Currently the limit on FNMA loans is $417,000. We do not yet know what the limit will be in Massachusetts.

• Friday: Rates stabilized around 6%

Diane Pansire

PO Box 2000

1990 Main Street

Brewster MA 02631

Office (508) 896-8459

Fax (508) 896-1087

Cell (508) 954-6011