Last Updated:
Feburary 08, 2010
Summit County Colorado contains the ski resorts of Breckenridge, Keystone, and Copper Mountain. Other nearby towns include Frisco, Dillon, Silverthorne.
Both Breckenridge and Keystone are owned and operated by Vail Resorts which also owns and operates the Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas. Vail is about a 50 minute drive from Breckenridge.
"THE NINE MOST TERRIFYING WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARE: `I'M FROM THE GOVERNMENT, AND I'M HERE TO HELP.`" Ronald Reagan.
And regardless of if those words do indeed terrify you or perhaps give you confidence, the government held center stage last week, with a pivotal Federal Reserve Board Policy Statement, President Obama's first State of the Union address, and Ben Bernanke's confirmation for another term as Fed Chairman.
First, let's start with the Federal Reserve Board, who on the heels of their most recent meeting reiterated their important line, "rates will remain low for an extended period" in their Policy Statement. This tells us that the "carry trade" which has pushed Stocks, Commodities and even Bonds higher may continue, as the driving force of this trade - low interest rates - will likely provide a tailwind. This piece of the Statement was good news for Bonds and home loan rates. However, this was offset by further confirmation that the Fed's Mortgage Backed Security purchase program will indeed end March 31st, 2010. This was bad news for Bonds and home loan rates, and overrode the "extended period" statement in terms of Bond market and home loan rate action.
Then on Wednesday evening, President Obama delivered his first official State of the Union address, and just like in his initial post-election speech, a big theme was job creation. He discussed a new jobs package, but no details on how much the package would cost or where the resources would be spent have been provided yet. With lots of money already spent with this goal in mind during 2009, and the jobs picture still worsening, hopes are high that future plans will be carefully crafted and targeted to achieve this important goal.
And finally - Ben Bernanke ultimately received a hard-won Senate confirmation for his second four-year term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, but it was a bit of a bruising confirmation fight. Bernanke has been under some criticism as he led the Fed in taking a series of extraordinary measures to protect the economy during the financial crisis, including the decision to help home loan rates stay low during 2009 and early 2010 via the aforementioned $1.25T Mortgage Backed Security purchase plan.
In other economic report news - last week's Advanced read on 4th Quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showed a climb of 5.7%, and as you can see from the chart below, that was the best reading since the 3rd Quarter of 2003.
Rate Review
In Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Mkt Survey (for the week ending February 5th) in which the 30-yr fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) avg. 5.01%. Last year at this time, the 30-yr FRM avg 5.25%.
The 15-year FRM this week avg 4.40%. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM avg 4.92%.
The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) avg 4.27%. A year ago, the 5-year ARM avg 5.26%.
The one-year Treasury-indexed ARM avg 4.22%. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM avg 4.92%.
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