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Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

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Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#201
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that people were given loans they should either never have gotten (2008) or that they shouldn't have asked for I bought my house in early 2007 and mortgages were indeed crazy back then. My analysis said that at the mortgage rates for a 30 year fixed mortgage back then (a tad over 6%) said that my ideal home financially would be around $H or less, that I could go up to 1.25 $H without house payments being high enoug…

Not familiar with this topic. What does $H mean? Annual gross salary?

I figured it was $100,000 but I could be wrong.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#202
post #104
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My question is: why would you fix for 30yr when you know you're paying multiple points to offset market uncertainty? To fix your monthly payment for the next 30 years. Furthermore, with a fixed rate mortgage you can benefit from interest rate volatility since you can always buy back the debt at par. In practice this means you can: 1. Take out a fixed rate loan for $n at x% 2. If the rate doubles (to 2x%) you can re…

> To fix your monthly payment for the next 30 years. Sure, but .. nothing else is fixed for those 30 years? Not your salary, the price of fuel, your place of work, life circumstances? And you're paying a premium at the start for this. It's more apparent in the UK where you can choose how long you want the fix for and see the interest rate you're offered go up. > you can benefit from interest rate volatility since you…

In the US, you can refinance your loans. Essentially taking out a new loan to pay off your old mortgage. The new loan has the new market interest rate. In the US, you’re typically allowed to pay off additional principal without any penalty, so you can end a loan by paying off the outstanding principal without needing the pay the remainder of the interest on the loan.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#203
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it's not really a burst, we're just hearing the hissing noise of the obvious leak. The true demand from people with the intend to actually live in the estates has been constantly decreasing since around 2000; the real salarys dropped since then, so did the buying power. The only reasons people found buyers at x3-x10 (!) prices were a) that there is a class of people wealthy enough to still afford the purchase…

Due to QE central bank bought stock from private equity - and private equity used thia money to buy homes.

What you wrote is complete nonsense

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#204
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that people were given loans they should either never have gotten (2008) or that they shouldn't have asked for I bought my house in early 2007 and mortgages were indeed crazy back then. My analysis said that at the mortgage rates for a 30 year fixed mortgage back then (a tad over 6%) said that my ideal home financially would be around $H or less, that I could go up to 1.25 $H without house payments being high enoug…

Out of curiosity, would a new well have been possible for less than 0.26 $H? (to separate the house from the group, not a maintenance hedge)

Good question. It didn't occur to me to check. A bit of Googling suggests that in my state a new well would indeed have been less that 0.26 $H. At the high end of depth for this area maybe 1/3 of that.

I have no idea if it would have actually been possible, though. Wells aren't allowed to be too close to septic tanks and septic drain fields, and there are other spacing constraints too. From what I recall of the way the house was placed on the lot and where the septic tank and drain field were there may not have been anyplace on the lot acceptable for a new well.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>buying an asset class that has a history of appreciating in value Correction - over a time period of decreasing interest rates. Housing, on its own, is a depreciating asset. It is a consumable like a TV. It deteriorates with time. "Housing always goes up", without an understanding of why it has been going up, can be a dangerous belief and could be one of the reasons why housing at the moment is so expensive relative…

housing might depreciate, but the same is not generally true for the real estate it sits on

Land values can turn around, especially if desirability of the area changes.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#206
I use to be a shareholder of Rocket. Then I tried to get a mortgage with them.

I'm self-employed. I make about 200k/year. I had 0 debt (I paid off my house the prior year). I had 20% for up to 350k. I had an 812 credit score.

When I applied they asked for my P&R statements for 2 years. The current year showed a $400 deficit (which was due to charitable giving). They said that I was losing money.Therefore I was too great of a risk.

I explained to them why the numbers were $400 lowers. I told them that I already had another $20k in receivables. I told them my present house was on the market. All to no avail. I was too great of a risk.

It was at this point that I knew they had little idea how to work in the industry. If they turned me down, they were turning other stable individuals down. I promptly sold my shares and moved on.

The realtor of the condo I eventually purchased recommended a broker. They looked at the same info and laughed at Rocket. The new broker gladly took the loan.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#207

Seems like the bubble burst is going to be more sudden than we thought. 30 year mortgages are suddenly at nearly 5.5-6%, listings are sitting on the market for longer, and multiple cities are cracking down on Airbnb.

I mean, it's not really a burst, we're just hearing the hissing noise of the obvious leak. The true demand from people with the intend to actually live in the estates has been constantly decreasing since around 2000; the real salarys dropped since then, so did the buying power. The only reasons people found buyers at x3-x10 (!) prices were a) that there is a class of people wealthy enough to still afford the purchase…

> The true demand from people with the intend to actually live in the estates has been constantly decreasing since around 2000; the real salarys dropped since then, so did the buying power.

> When 90 (?) percent of people simply lack the buying power to participate in the real estate market, but the other 10% happily sell each other estates, that's not a bubble, the real estate market just stopped interfacing with the vast majority of the population.

Nonsense. The home ownership rate is 65%, in-line with the long term average and the same as it was in the year 2000

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#208
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Going in debt for 30-40 years has zero appeal for me Going into debt at the lowest interest rate you'll ever be offered to buy a leveraged asset that's likely to increase in price and reduce the overhead you pay on your largest expense, housing, and hedge against the risk of rent increases and security against the whims of landlords? > Germany Oh, Germany. Somehow Germany has escaped the constantly increasing house…

> Going into debt at the lowest interest rate you'll ever be offered to buy a leveraged asset that's likely to increase in price and reduce the overhead you pay on your largest expense, housing, and hedge against the risk of rent increases and security against the whims of landlords? Look, if I had enough money around, I'd maybe consider the gamble. But I don't want to buy property to sell it later, I just want to li…

You seem like an engineer, so you should be able to start up a spreadsheet, put down a bunch of reasonable numbers, and project forward 20-30-40 years and see what makes sense for you. If a loan is involved, read up on the IPMT Excel/Google Sheets function! [1]

I don't know how things work where you are, but here in the US if you are renting, you are essentially helping someone else pay their debt. And they can kick you out when they please. The main benefit is that you can stop paying on a much shorter time scale (1yr lease contract?) or take time off, but if you don't rent you should require a smaller cash flow which should be possible to save up for.

One last thing, don't forget that you can sell the property in the future (or even rent it out, hence letting someone else pay YOUR debt). That should factor in your cost/benefit calculations. Even if it does not appreciate at crazy rates like the current insane market has led us to expect, it will very likely be a lot more than zero.

[1] https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093175?hl=en

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#209
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Labour market is tight because after covid people are not willing to work at many jobs at the peanuts they were paid for before nor are they willing to change the work life balance they would need to sacrifice for these jobs.

there's that plus i think a bunch of boomers (like my parents) took it as a sign to retire.

And also nearly a million people died in the US. Even though most of those were elderly and probably not working, it's not insignificant.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#210
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Going into debt at the lowest interest rate you'll ever be offered to buy a leveraged asset that's likely to increase in price and reduce the overhead you pay on your largest expense, housing, and hedge against the risk of rent increases and security against the whims of landlords? Look, if I had enough money around, I'd maybe consider the gamble. But I don't want to buy property to sell it later, I just want to li…

If in 10 years you want a year off is your landlord going to give you one?

I think he’s saying that in ten years he can stop renting and shove everything into a storage unit and go travel.

The rent/but dichotomy really comes down to what axis of “freedom” you want to optimize for, and if you want to stay in the house and area more than 10 years.

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