Orion pridesitself on product, price, and service, and our brokers are “top-notch” when itcomes to helping their clients. While products and service tend to berelatively stable, bond prices, and therefore mortgage rates, fluctuate daily,and often during the day. Brokers know that a slowing economy leads to lowerrates, and we mention this to our brokers because Orion’s mortgage ratesdropped last week and remain low today.

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Why? Rates trended down in response to softer-than-expected labor market data, including last month's jobs report. In August, the U.S. economy added 142,000 jobs, which is below the forecast of 164,000. This cooler data led some to believe that the labor market may be weakening, and had some speculating that the Federal Reserve could opt for a larger half-point rate cut at its meeting next week.

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As the Fed lowers the federal funds rate, mortgage rates are expected to go down. Brokers know that much, if not all, of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee is already priced into the markets though markets have already priced in at least a quarter-point decrease to the Fed's benchmark rate in September a larger cut could cause a bigger drop in mortgage rates.

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This week, on Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release consumer price index data for August. This index is a key measure of inflation, and one of the last big pieces of economic data Fed officials will review ahead of their meeting on September 17 and 18. Depending on what the data shows, a bigger rate cut could become more, or less, likely.

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If your client is wondering if they should refinance now that mortgage rates have dropped a bit, you'll need to crunch the numbers with them to see if it makes sense. Some experts advise only refinancing if your client can reduce the irate by a percentage point or more, but it really comes down to whether it works for their individual circumstances. Brokers are instrumental in this process.

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If your client can save enough with Orion each month by refinancing that they can recoup their costs in a reasonable amount of time, it will be worth it. You can help them calculate this by dividing their closing costs by the amount they're saving on their monthly mortgage payment. So, if the cost to refinance is $3,000and you are able to lower your client’s monthly payment by $200, it would take them15 months to break even on their refinance.

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Rates are only part of the picture, of course. Having the right product and service are also a big part of what Orion and our brokers are about. Orion’s AEs are skilled at helping you you’re your borrowers “crunch the numbers” so talk to us about our current rates and programs and let us dazzle you with our service.

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