Moore Mortgage Solutions

    FICO, Fair Isaac, Facto Beacon. Ever wonder what these are? They represent your credit score from the three major credit bureaus, TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian that make up your credit scores.

    Your mortgage interest rate is based on the mid-score of the three of these scores. The higher the score, the better the interest and more flexibility you have in the different programs.

    Knowing how your scores are made up can help you better them.

    Below are the five factors that affect your credit score and how your credit score is calculated:

• Your payment history has the biggest effect on your score at 35%. This tells creditors how you pay your bills. Miss one payment and your score can drop by 50-70 points immediately. Getting those points back can take months.
• 30% of your score goes to the amount of money you owe to your creditors. You can lose 80 points just by maxing out one credit card. Remember what your credit limits are and keep your balances below 30%. In other words, spread the debt around on your cards if you are charging.
• The length of your credit history makes up 15%. If you have credit cards that you opened years ago, keep them open and use them occasionally. If you really don’t need that new credit card don’t apply for it as that can cost you between 2-30 points
• 10% of your score goes to new credit. This number includes recently opened accounts and credit inquires, as well as how often you’ve applied for credit. The good news in this one area is if you are shopping for a car or mortgage and your credit is pulled several times keep the inquiries within a 14 day period. This 14 day period will be changing but unfortunately not all models will be using this right away. So it is best to stay within that 14 day period.
• And the last 10% of your score is based on types of credit. So be picky about who you have credit with. Stay with the major credit cards.

    These models are constantly being tweaked but this will give you a good idea how to better your credit score over time.

    Also it is always a good idea to check your credit yearly for mistakes and especially at least six to twelve months before purchasing a home.

    Until next time, make everyday an inspired one!

Betsy Moore

betsy@mooremortgagesolutions.com

    This week several important monthly reports are being released along with the various boards members of the Federal Reserve Board speaking. Comments from these boards member can sometimes move the market.

    Case in point, New York Vice Chairman Donald Kohn spoke about how the Federal Reserve needs to be flexible as well as needs to “foster both price stability and full employment.”

    These comments have caused the market to interpret this to mean that there may be an additional cut in the Fed Fund Rate. Both the bond and stock markets are moving higher in response to Kohn’s comments.

    Other reports released today were the Durable Goods and the Existing Home Sales for October. Durable Goods was reported lower than expected and is good news for the bond market.

    Existing Home Sales has dropped to their lowest levels since 1999 across the country.

    The Seattle market is still doing well overall. Though appreciation is down from prior years, we are still in a good market. And this is still a good time to buy a home. Inventories are higher which means you have a wider selection of homes to choose from and interest rates are still low.

    Over the next two days, there will be three other reports being released that can move the market. They are the GDP Chain Deflator, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) and the PCE.

    If any of these reports come in hotter than expected, I will be sure to update.

    Until then, make every day an inspired day!

Betsy Moore

betsy@mooremortgagesolutions.com

    This week several important monthly reports are being released with Wednesday and Thursday having the most important ones.

• Wednesday: Two retail sales reports will be released. One will have the total retail sales and the other will be minus the volatile auto sales. These reports measure board consumer spending on durable and non-durable products.
• Thursday: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Core CPI will be released early in the day. The CPI measures the average price of a fixed basket of goods and services on 200 categories. And the Core CPI takes out food and energy. And then the Philadelphia Fed Index is also being reported. It deals with the regional expanding and contracting of the manufacturing sector.

    Remember, when the money flows into the stock market, interest rates go up. And when money flows out of the stock market into the bond market, rates will drift down.

    If any of these reports come in hotter than expected, I will be sure to update.

    Until then, make every day an inspired day!

Betsy Moore

betsy@mooremortgagesolutions.com

    This week is a fairly light week for economic news. There are only three reports coming out. And out of those three, only one is considered to be highly important.

• 3^rd Quarter Productivity Report shows the level of worker productivity during the third quarter. This report comes out on Wednesday.

• Goods and Services Trade Balance measures the size of the our trade deficit. Though it doesn’t influence the bond market, it can affect the value of the U.S. dollar. This reports comes out on Friday.

• The preliminary University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment is the last report being released on Friday. This report is considered highly important as it measures consumer confidence and indicates their willingness to spend.

    A quiet week after last week’s many reports being released.

    If there are any major changes in the market, I will be sure to update.

    Until then, make every day an inspired day!

Betsy Moore

betsy@mooremortgagesolutions.com

    Today, the Labor Department released October’s employment numbers. New jobs doubled exceeding the forecast of 80,000. This would normally put pressure on the bond market as more jobs means more people working therefore more money potentially to spend in the economy.

    But other factors like the September revision of new jobs were revised down as well as the average hourly earnings for September and October were less than expected.

    To top this all off, the unemployment rate stayed at 4.7% as it was expected.

    With these numbers, economic analysts aren’t anticipating another Fed Fund rate cut for the remainder of this year.

    What does all this mean? The bond market today is experiencing increases. And when the bond market goes up, mortgage interest rates start to float down.

Next week will be on the light side of economic reports coming out.

I will start posting articles about credit, how to prepare for an emergency, and other helpful topics so stay tuned.

Until next time, make every day an inspired one!

Betsy Moore

betsy@mooremortgagesolutions.com

    Today, the PCE and the Core PCE came out. The Core PCE which is the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge reported within expectation. The Fed’s target zone for inflation is between 1%-2%. Inflation over the last 12 months remains at 1.8%.

    Yesterday as I reported, the Fed cut their Fed Fund Rate by .25%. And after the meeting, the Fed said, and I am paraphrasing, they are concerned that there may be renewed pressure on inflation increasing due to energy and commodities prices rising.

    Economic analysts don’t feel that the Fed will cut the Fed Fund Rate again this year.

    Until next time, make your days inspired ones.

Betsy Moore

betsy@mooremortgagesolutions.com