Don't Lose Your Deposit!

Some homebuyers lose deposits of $10,000, $20,000, or more due to high mortgage rates! Do not let this happen to you! There are new programs out to help with higher rates.
Dahianara Lopez and her husband Paulo Echeverry run a food truck outside of Orlando. "We work together every day," she says while cooking up Colombian sausages on the truck's big stainless steel grill.
​They say by putting in long hours over several years they were able to save up a down payment for a house.
"We think that renting is like we are wasting money, you know?" says Lopez. "So we want to buy a house, to have something that we can say is mine."
Late last year, they signed a contract to buy a new home before it was built for about $500,000 and put down a $25,000 deposit.
The couple has been very scared that they won't qualify for a mortgage anymore and will lose that big deposit.
"The sales guy, he always tells us we're going to lose the deposit if we don't buy the house," Echeverry said. "Even the area sales manager... she told me, too, that we're going to lose our money."
Some people have already lost their money. Karen Jensen works as a school nurse at an elementary school in Tigard, Ore. She and her husband wanted a bigger house for them and their three kids.
We put just a little over $15,000 down as a deposit," she says.
But after interest rates jumped so much higher they decided to back out of buying it, and she says the builder kept their deposit.

If you are in this situation please call as there are new programs coming out to help people just like this. A lot of loan officers got in the business in 2019 when it was a different market and do not understand how to navigate this market and where it is going. I have been helping homebuyers since 2004! There are different programs we have at UWL to help you get into your new home. Before you walk away from your 20k deposit, call me first and I can walk you through how we can help!

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Movember 2022 - El Dorado Hills Fire Fighters Association

Movember is the leading charity changing the face of men’s health. Since 2003, Movember has funded more than 1,250 men’s health projects around the world, challenging the status quo, shaking up men’s health research and transforming the way health services reach and support men. Their focus is on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention. By 2030, they aim to reduce the number of men dying prematurely by 25%.

Each year, our local EDH firefighters grow mustaches and host a golf tournament in support of Movember. This year, we sponsored hole 5 on the Cameron Park Country Club Golf Course. It was a wonderful event and we look forward to being involved again next year.

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Another Mega Interest Rate Hike is Coming—What this Means for Your Finances

Americans should prepare their finances for even higher interest rates this year as the Federal Reserve continues its fight against inflation.
Although the Fed has increased its benchmark short-term fed funds rate by 3% this year, with the last three rate hikes at a whopping 75 basis points each, consumer inflation continues to linger near a 40-year high.
It also is expected to telegraph more rate hikes to come as it focuses on combating inflation, so consumers should expect their costs to head even higher and job losses to mount as economic growth slows.
Although the Fed doesn’t directly control consumer interest rates, its rate increases ripple through the economy and ultimately, hit businesses and consumers and slow demand and inflation.
“Given the environment of rising rates and a slowing economy, the financial steps for households to take are boosting emergency savings, paying down high-cost debt, and maintaining contributions into, and a long-term perspective on, retirement accounts,” Greg McBride, Bankrate chief financial analyst, said.
How high will interest rates go?
The Fed's expected to raise rates Wednesday by 75 basis points, which would mark the fourth consecutive increase of that size.
And likely that won't be the end. The Fed's year-end median fed funds forecast is 4.4% and 4.6% next year before heading lower, according to its economic projections. That means there’s likely another rate increase coming at the Fed meeting in December.
Economists generally expect the Fed to slow its rate hikes in December with a half-point rise to get inflation closer to its 2% target, but another 0.75% hike isn’t out of the question. Deutsche Bank analysts, for now, expect a fifth consecutive supersized 0.75% rate increase in December.
In September, overall annual inflation dipped to an 8.2% pace from August's 8.3%, but the core rate without the volatile food and energy sectors rose 6.6%, from 6.3% the prior month and the largest increase since August 1982. Both topped economists' mean forecast and unleashed worries that inflation's getting entrenched in areas that'll be harder to control if the Fed doesn't act faster.
How does this affect my plans to buy a house?
Homeowners with existing fixed-rate mortgages won’t see any changes. But recent and prospective homebuyers are being socked by higher rates that take into account projected Fed increases through 2022.
"The speed at which mortgage rates have risen is more destabilizing than the actual level of rates,” Yelena Maleyev, KPMG economist, said. “We have seen mortgage rates higher than 7% before, but we never have seen rates double in a matter of months. “
The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the week ended Oct. 21 was 7.16%, the highest rate since 2001, according to Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
That's dampened borrower demand for both mortgage purchases and refinances. For the week ending Oct. 21, mortgage applications fell 1.7% to the slowest pace since 1997, MBA said. Refinance applications were essentially unchanged, but purchase applications declined 2% to the slowest pace since 2015 and more than 40% behind last year’s clip, it said.