Sure Sign of Recession: A Massive Uptick In Sales Calls!
Famed, Nobel-Prize-winning economist, Paul Krugman tweeted this morning that today’s GDP data shows “no hint of recession.”
So, it is obvious to me that Mr. Krugman does not own a business because if he did, he would be getting inundated with sales calls and know that something is not right with our economy.
I might add too that Mr. Krugman also famously said that the internet would amount to nothing, and that the stock market would crash after Trump got elected (he was mildly wrong both times 😊).
In any case, as the owner of a business myself, I have been absolutely getting smothered with LinkedIn messages, sales calls and emails over the last several months like I have never seen before.
I now get well over 100 phone calls, messages, and emails every day.
And yes, I filter and screen them all, but the volume is just off the charts – and the extreme uptick in volume tells me something is very amiss in our economy.
Credit Bureaus Are Selling Your Info!
I bring this up because the most aggressive callers in the history of civilization are loan officers from mortgage bank call centers – and they are out of control right now.
I know this because several of our managers have purchased homes in recent months (yes, we put our money where our mouths are), and they have been slammed with HUNDREDS (yes, hundreds) of phone calls from mortgage companies.
What prompted this onslaught of calls was the pulling of their credit – and they forgot to OPT-OUT OF CREDIT MONITORING via this website: OptOutPrescreen.
I blogged about this at length in October – You Can Stop Credit Bureaus From Selling Your Info (& Avoid Getting Pummeled) – and recommend re-reading it.
TLDR: Readers should always “opt-out” and remind their clients to do so too! (we now go out of our way to do so)
Pending Home Sales Down In March (Not “UH OH”)
The media are having a field day with the latest ostensibly “negative housing news” that pending home sales were down sharply in March (the index fell by 5.2% when it was expected to RISE).
BUT – it was just a result of very tight inventory, and the chief economist from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) says as much. Here is a Reuters article discussing the news.
Listings are down 200,000 from November alone, so I am not sure why anyone would expect an increase in pending sales. WE. NEED. MORE. INVENTORY.
FHA Interest Rates Are LOW!
This is a quick reminder that FHA rates remain extremely low and are much lower than Fannie Mae rates – even with only 3.5% down!
In addition, FHA MI rates are now much lower too: 0.55% for low-balance FHA, and 0.75% for high-balance FHA.
FHA single-family loan limits go all the way up to $1,089,300 in CA, and up to $726,200 in Texas.
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