Resources: Newsletter Articles: Rising Mortgage Rates Shouldn't Deter Home Buyers

In This Issue:

• Rising Mortgage Rates Shouldn't Deter Home Buyers
• Fannie Mae Follow-up
• Can We Eat Dinner In Peace?

Rising Mortgage Rates Shouldn't Deter Home Buyers

Mortgage rates rose for the fourth consecutive week in Bankrate.com's weekly national survey of large lenders. The survey puts the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 5.99 percent. Just over a month ago, the 30-year fixed stood at 5.28 percent.

While today's rate is well off the modern-day low of 5.28 percent set June 11, it's still a bargain compared to a year ago, when the 30-year fixed rate average stood at 6.5 percent.

The recent rise in mortgage rates may be cooling the passion for refinancing, but there's no reason for prospective home buyers to sit on the fence. Most refinancings are highly responsive to interest rate gyrations, but purchases are less so.

Fanne Mae Follow-up

Some institutional investors and analysts say that Fannie Mae, perhaps the most important company in the housing business, has had billions of dollars of losses the last two years that have been obscured by the complexity of its accounting. While those losses are deferred, they will hurt Fannie Mae in the future, cutting into its capital base and making it more vulnerable to a future downturn in housing prices or sharp changes in interest rates.

With government agencies and critics looking closer than ever, the next few months will be crucial for Fannie Mae, as it seeks to prove to investors and regulators that its portfolio has not grown unmanageably large and risky.

Can We Eat Dinner In Peace?

The National Do Not Call Registry is offering you an opportunity to limit the telemarketing calls you receive. In October, telemarketers must begin purchasing the list and not call those on it. Telemarketers must be in full compliance by January 29, 2004. Violators can be fined up to $11,000 for each illegal call.

Placing your number on the National Do Not Call Registry will stop most, but not all, telemarketing calls. Political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors and companies with which you have an existing business relationship, are exempt.

The National Do Not Call Registry is managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency. It will be enforced by the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and state law enforcement officials.

Covered telemarketers are required to download registered phone numbers every three months. Law enforcement officials may access the phone numbers as part of investigations. If your state maintains its own 'do not call' list, it may receive the list of phone numbers in the National Do Not Call Registry to update its list.

The online registration process requires a valid email address, used by the FTC to verify your registration request. Online registration can be found at http://www.donotcall.gov/. To register by phone, consumers may call 1 (888) 382-1222. For TTY/TTD (Teletype or Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) call 1 (866) 290-4236.

sherrybenninger@grubbco.com

The GRUBB Co., 1960 Mountain Blvd., Oakland, CA 94611

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