A Change Will Do Me Good

We're in the process of relocating - actually splitting - our offices today. It became obvious to us that with the huge growth of Wells's Caring For Your Clients business and Ray's expansion of processing duties for select loan officers at Aspen Home Loans that we probably couldn't effectively house ourselves in the single location at American Fork any longer. So Wells has an office in Eagle Mountain, just joined the Chamber of Commerce and was elected Secretary of the Lehi Area Chamber of Commerce last Thursday (huzzah!), Ray opened a branch for us in Orem, just off the main crossroads at University Parkway and State Street, while I will maintain the AF location and open another branch in Lehi, just north of the high school. Presto! From one branch to four in about a month. Today we are moving stuff around, so this will be fairly short.

Rates continue to push upwards - we're seeing the highest rates of the last three years this morning. The 30-year is about 6.25%, with the 15-year at 5.875% or thereabouts. Consensus is that the Fed will keep raising rates to head off inflation, the signs of which continue to be completely absent. This will be bad for mortgage rates. Our forecast is for rates in the 6.5% range on the 30-year by mid-year, and close to 7% by the end of the year.

Thus, to find good bargains in the market will require more work and better planning than heretofore, which is good for us, because we are uniquely positioned to help our clients to find those deals. We do get a fair number of calls from clients who already have a deal in mind, but we are also proactive about creating them, as you know if you have been reading this blog for any length of time. We are, for instance, very close to announcing a series of seminars for first-time homebuyers, and we are in talks to form a partnership with a builder and a Realtor to create a home-investment collaboration. I am really excited about the possibilities for that. There is still very good money to be made in Utah in construction and other real estate ventures - Utah has risen from 50th in the nation in 2004 to 12th in 2005 for home appreciation. As the market cools elsewhere, Utah and other parts of the West seem to be finally getting their act together. More on that later.