The recipients of this award are chosen based on responses to a management questionnaire as well as a confidential employee survey. You can click below to read the original article on the Providence Business News website and see the entire list of companies honored.

Original Article: http://www.pbn.com/PBN-names-Best-Places-To-Work-for-2011,57996

.

You’ve probably heard the stories. Stories from people trying to buy homes who have submitted dozens of pages of documentation, only to be met with endless requests for more documentation, excuses, and, ultimately, a loan denial. It’s frustrating, upsetting, and downright insulting what is happening to many families. The worst part of all is, in many cases, it’s avoidable.

It’s true that the market has made things a lot tougher for home buyers. Many difficulties have arisen due to an epidemic of  “buy-backs”, that is, lenders that wrote mortgage loans have been forced to buy them back from investors who purchased them, often for seemingly meaningless reasons, like the wrong date on a pay stub, or a punctuation error on an insurance binder. The result of this is that bank underwriters are much more careful in their review of documents.

Rather than diving too deep into the problem these buy-backs represent, let’s examine some of the problems that have been found, and ways to prevent them affecting your application. One of the most prevalent problems found is matching errors between information shown on various home buyer documents. One client I worked for recently wanted to refinance her home to take advantage of current low mortgage rates. She had owned the home for a few years, but she had never updated some of her important documentation to match the new address. As a result, it appeared from her pay stubs, bank statements, and insurance documents that she still lived at the old address.

It’s very important to promptly update your address with employers, creditors, lenders and banks as soon as possible on moving. While it might not seem to be such a big deal, especially with everything else going on around the time of moving in, this is extremely important to underwriters, and can cause significant delays to your closing. Think about it as a basic part of moving. You unpack all your stuff; update your address, too.

Another area that creates significant additional questions is inquiries in your credit report. You get a credit inquiry every time a company requests your credit for the purpose of granting you credit. Think of it as the banks’ way of tracking where you’re applying for new loans. Most home buyers have very few credit inquiries, often only 1 or 2 related to searching for the right mortgage. This is often not an issue for a mortgage approval.

It can be a different issue altogether when a credit report contains numerous inquiries for various different purposes. A common scenario I’ve seen is when a buyer had applied in the last few months for a card at Old Navy to get the extra 10% one-time discount offered there, then, after getting mortgage pre-approval and a contract to buy, they head to the furniture store.

Many mortgage pre-approvals today are based on very tight margins, where even a small increase in monthly budget can turn an approved loan into a denial. Now, it’s natural to think that you’ll need furniture for your new home, and you probably will! During the mortgage process, though is not the time to get it. You see, underwriters are requiring home buyers to explain any and all credit inquiries that appear in their credit report. If the credit requests turned into new credit accounts, then, those accounts will have to be considered in the underwrite. Even though the the furniture store may be offering no payments for 6 months, future payments will have to be incorporated into budget review.

Another problem that can be caused by credit inquiries is damage to the credit score. Each credit inquiry has  a small effect on credit score, which varies depending on the type of inquiry, and the number of recent inquiries. Mortgage inquiries cause relatively little change (and none if they are subsequent mortgage inquiries within a 21-day period), while credit card, and especially store charge inquiries can do substantial damage. Once you’ve settled on where you’ll be getting your mortgage, it is important to avoid any further requests until after closing.

Tax returns are becoming more and more important in 2011. Prior to 2009, most home buyers didn’t have to supply tax returns with their mortgage applications, but, due to a number of cases of fraud involving falsified tax returns, banks are verifying tax filings of all home buyers today. This means that they will review that information even if it’s not submitted to them. There are a number of ways in which this can delay a mortgage process:

• Change in filing status (single –> married, for example)
• Undeclared rental or business income (or, especially, loss!)
• Unreimbursed employee business expense
• Certain deductions (mortgage interest when no home is owned, student loan interest when no loans on credit, etc.)
• Taxes unfiled for one or more years

These, and many other surprises can come from the review of tax returns. If you have any questions about whether your tax return could cause concerns, it would be best to review your returns with your mortgage advisor before finalizing an offer on a home. While most entries on a tax return are relatively innocuous, the degree to which this documentation is currently scrutinized demands an overabundance of caution.

I’ve only scratched the surface of the surprises that can come up during the mortgage process in 2011. Credit inquiries, tax return verifications, and address discrepancies are among the most common challenges seen lately, and most issues there can be mitigated by providing enough documentation and explanations upfront.  Thank you very much for reading our review of this situation. Please feel free to contact us with any questions not answered here.

A meaningful correlation between the ADP Private Payrolls report and the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly Employment Situation Report. I have used data from the past 5 years reports to develop a prediction for tomorrow’s Employment Situation Report.

Recent economic information has shown a decided trend towards continued improvement in the US economy. Recent reports on services, manufacturing, and retail sales, all point to continued strengthening. There have been a few reports of improvement in the housing sector, however, those reports have been very weak, principally reflecting a slight bounce from the abysmal lows of late 2010. Employment data has been suspect at best, reflecting continued inability of employers to increase hiring.

January’s employment report significantly missed expectations, showing addition of 103,000 new payroll jobs. Most economists had predicted much larger gains, ranging from 150,000-200,000 new jobs. I predicted 255,000 jobs would be added, a substantial miss.

Yesterday, ADP reported an estimate that 187,000 jobs had been added to the economy, further building on the employment momentum built up in December. Still this is a significant decline from the now-revised 247,000 jobs ADP estimated were added in that month. Several factors may be affecting this, including recent weather patterns.

My models produced reliable predictions ranging from 165,000 to 170,000 jobs added based on the historical ADP and BLS data. This range was tightened because the recent misses in the ADP report caused the 10-period model I have used to lose statistical significance. As a result, data from those methods was discarded in preparation of this estimate. I have developed a prediction that tomorrow’s report will show 160,000 jobs added to private payrolls in January. The net jobs gain is expected to be 150,000, reflecting continued decreases in government payrolls. In addition to these gains, the BLS will provide a revision to the December employment report. I believe these revisions will add few net jobs over the months revised.

While the unemployment rate fell in December, its fall was principally driven by the exit of over 500,000 job seekers from the labor force. I believe a substantial number of these workers will return to their search, thus increasing the unemployment rate to 9.7%.

Dan Hartman is a Senior Mortgage Advisor with Province Mortgage Associates of Providence, RI, and has more than 10 years experience in the mortgage industry. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Economics with Roger Williams University and the University of New Haven. Extensive data was researched and compiled by Thomas Khoudary of Providence College.

Recently,economic information has shown a substantial trend towards improvement. Retail sales, business climate, manufacturing climate and factory orders have all shown some improvement in December. The only components of the economy that haven’t turned better lately appear to be housing and employment, two categories that are tied closely to each other. Home prices won’t rebound until employment levels improve, meaning that improvements in the employment situation must come first.

December’s employment report was a substantial disappointment. Most economists had expected 140-150,000 jobs be added. Here, I predicted 210,000 jobs would be added. Actual results showed a gain of only 39,000 jobs.

Yesterday’s ADP Private Payrolls report gave a strong indication that December’s jobs report may have been an anomaly. According to the release, 297,000 jobs were added in December. This provides a clear signal that the employment situation is likely improving. Based on this result, and on the recent relationship between the ADP results and the BLS reports, I have prepared a prediction for tomorrow’s report.

My models produced predictions ranging from 256,000 to 486,000 jobs added. Based on available data, I have developed a prediction that tomorrow’s report will show 255,000 private payroll jobs were added in December. The net jobs gain will likely be 250,000, reflecting continuing declines in government employment. In addition to these gains in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will also provide a revision to November’s employment figures in the morning. I expect this revision to add 75,000 positions to payrolls.

While the unemployment rate rose in December, the jobs gains my models suggest will be high enough to lower the unemployment rate to 9.6%.

Dan Hartman is a Senior Mortgage Advisor with Province Mortgage Associates of Providence, RI, and has more than 10 years experience in the mortgage industry. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Economics with Roger Williams University and the University of New Haven. Extensive data was researched and compiled by Thomas Khoudary of Providence College.

Fixed income markets were a train wreck yesterday as inflation numbers came in high, and retail sales strong. The Fed didn’t do anything to help, reaffirming its take that the economy isn’t growing quickly enough, and that it would continue its asset purchase plans. This comes down to the Fed’s dual mandate: low unemployment and controlled inflation. Right now, the Fed sees inflation as under control and below its target level at the moment, and sees unemployment as the bigger problem.

This morning’s inflation stats reinforced the Fed’s position. CPI came in at +.1% for both core and overall today, meaning that prices aren’t rising, according to CPI. According to this expert video,

The food prices are higher than a year ago,

The gas prices are higher than a year ago,

The health care costs are higher than a year ago,

The tuition prices are higher than a year ago,

The taxes are higher than a year ago,

The subway fares are higher than a year ago,

The stock prices are higher than a year ago,

And the bond prices are higher than a year ago.*

*(Bond prices have clearly decreased since the publication of the video.)

However, we do not see that in the CPI right now. Yesterday’s PPI did show some aspects, but CPI today does not. Big drags on the CPI this year have been apparel (-0.8%), household gas (-4.8%), new vehicles (-.4%), and shelter (aka rent, +0.2%). Note that the Bureau of Labor statistics continues to use rent in calculating shelter costs. If it used ownership costs, inflation would have measured much higher in 2003-2007, and deflation would have a firm grip on the economy right now.

The good news is that the low inflation figures this AM took some pressure off bond prices, at least for the moment. The Empire Fed index came out a little while ago, showing a positive environment for manufacturing and putting that pressure right back on. Industrial production also rose. I predicted for my ECON 101 class 3.5% GDP growth in 2010Q4 (due Jan 28 2011) based on all the positive data we’ve seen lately. I stand by that number again on this data.

All lock periods: LOCK.

Bottom line: If things look bad for rates now, they’re probably just going to get worse. Don’t go banging your head against the wall, though. The health care is too expensive.

If you have questions regarding Rhode Island Refinance Rates, or whether or not to lock your loan, please don’t hesitate to contact me by cell at (401) 263-8655. Have a great week!

Related articles:

Last Week’s Report

Dan Hartman is a Senior Mortgage Advisor with Province Mortgage Associates, and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Economics at Roger Williams University and the University of New Haven. He has been helping homeowners and homebuyers with their mortgage questions for over 10 years.

It appears that labor markets may not be as strong as recent data have suggested. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Situation Report was released this morning, showing a mere 39,000 jobs added in November, far below our estimate of 210,000 and other analysts average estimates of 130,000. A surprising drag on total employment was the retail sector. While expansion in that sector would ordinarily be expected at this time of the year, retail employment actually fell 28,100 in the month.

Offsetting the low results slightly was a revision to October’s report adding an additional 21,000 jobs to bring that month’s total to 172,000 from 151,000 previously reported.

Private employers added only 50,000 jobs in November. Most economists are looking to private hiring to pull the unemployment rate down, as it is unlikely governments will be able to do much to increase its own payrolls in the face of increasing pressure to reign in deficit spending. During the worst of the financial crisis, private employers cut over 7 million jobs, and have only recently begun to replace those workers.

The unemployment rate increased to 9.8% as more than 100,000 new or returning workers actively sought work, while total workers employed fell by 173,000. Note that these figures do not coincide with the non-farms payrolls figures. The Employment Situation report covers two separate surveys: an establishment survey that provides the jobs data; and a household survey which provides data used to calculate the unemployment rate.

Today’s unemployment report is the largest item of negative economic news in some time, and the deluge of good news has caused a significant increase in mortgage rates. Yesterday, mortgage firm Freddie Mac reported average 30-year fixed rates of 4.46%, up sharply from the recent low of 4.17%. Still, current rates are better by far than they have been historically, presenting excellent opportunities for home buyers and home owners considering a refinance.

The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing survey came out moments ago indicating continued growth in line with analyst estimates.

Mortgage pricing will improve this morning, but the reason is an island in a sea of otherwise positive economic data. The dip in rates could be very short lived, so borrowers and loan originators should take advantage of it to get rates locked. I recommend locking all loans at this time provided closing is with 60 days.

Next week will bring a few scattered economic reports and $65 billion in new Treasury borrowing, which should serve as a barometer for markets’ willingness to absorb further supply of government debt. If you have questions regarding Rhode Island Refinance Rates, or whether or not to lock your loan, please don’t hesitate to contact me by cell at (401) 263-8655. Have a great day!

Related articles:

Daily Update for November 17th

Weekly Recap for November 22nd-26th

Dan Hartman is a Senior Mortgage Advisor with Province Mortgage Associates, and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Economics at Roger Williams University and the University of New Haven. He has been helping homeowners and homebuyers with their mortgage questions for over 10 years.

At that time, the data were used as part of a system to predict the results of the upcoming Employment Situation report. Additions of 73,000 private payroll jobs, and 60,000 total jobs were predicted. The actual results of the employment situation report showed 159,000 private payroll jobs added, and 151,000 total jobs, meaning the prediction fell short by 86,000 and 91,000 jobs respectively.

Since the beginning of November, there has been a significant shift in the tone of economic data. While recent inflation figures have shown limited increase in the price level, expectations of future inflation have risen significantly. Meanwhile, manufacturing and business data has shown strength, and jobless claims have fallen. The only aspect of the economy not showing strong signs of growth is housing.

In spite of this recent information, many economists were surprised yesterday when payroll services firm ADP reported 93,000 jobs were added by private firms, and that an additional 39,000 jobs had been added in the prior month.

Using the same methodology as last month, a prediction for tomorrow’s Employment Situation Report has been prepared. Recent trends in the ADP report, and recent economic data, suggest that Private Employers added 225,000 net jobs in November. Total job creation is expected to be 210,000 jobs, as governments continue to cut employment. The unemployment rate is expected to hold stable at 9.6%, but may come under pressure in the near future as discouraged workers begin returning to the labor force.

Dan Hartman is a Senior Mortgae Advisor with Provice Mortgage Associates of Providence, RI, and has more than 10 years experience in the mortgage industry. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Economics with Roger Williams University and the University of New Haven. Extensive data was researched and compiled by Thomas Khoudary of Providence College.

Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston addressed the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce regarding the Fed’s recently initiated Large-Scale Asset Purchase program. Also know as Quantitative Easing, or “QEII”, this program was widely rumored since August, was announced November 3rd, and went into effect last Friday, November 12th. I personally attended the presentation.

Since its announcement, the 10-year Treasury yield, a benchmark for long-term interest rates has risen in yield 4/10ths%.

Rosengren cited the Fed’s dual mandate: maintain low inflation, while accommodating the lowest possible unemployment rate. He explained that, unlike in other cases, current economic conditions allow the Fed to address both issues at the same time. The LSAP is expected to achieve both. In fact, since it first hit the rumor mills after Fed Chairman Benjamin Bernanke’s speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Conference in August, the program has achieved its goals.

Just as a Fed interest rate decrease would be expected to lower long-term rates, boost stock values, and cause the dollar to weaken against other currencies, so too was the LSAP expected to cause the same results. The only difference is the vehicle of that change: in a rate change to the Fed Funds Rate, the Fed buys or sells short-term Treasury bills; in LSAP, the Fed is buying longer-term Treasury notes and bonds.

Since rumor of the programstarted circulating in August, and up until its effects were seen last Friday, mortgage rates declined by about, 0.25%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 12%, and the dollar depreciated against other major currencies. The program’s announcement also led expectations of long-term inflation to increase from a level around 1.4% to 2.1% in that time frame, according to Rosengren.

So here’s the bottom line for home buyers and mortgage originators:

We’ve seen about the best we’re going to get out of this program. From here out, the effects will be measured in smaller adjustments to rates. The effects seen last Friday and this Monday are reflective of a common Wall Street phenomenon: buy the rumor, sell the news. That is to say, markets will react to coming events in advance of their occurrence to the poitn where the will often overreact. Then, when the news is proved true, the review their position, find they went too far and react to it.

Mortgage pricing is still worse than it was last Wednesday, the final day of truly good pricing. It’s improved a little in the last two days, in a possible reaction to an overreaction. While the time may come in the next few weeks where pricing stabilizes and it becomes safe to float loans, albeit at a higher rate than 2 weeks ago, at the moment it is still important to lock new loans going into process until that stability comes.

Tomorrow brings weekly jobless claims data, the single best chance out there of seeing a reversal in mortgage pricing. If claims exceed 450,000, mortgage pricing should get better. That said, Eric Rosengren cited the LSAP program with the ability to add 700,000 jobs to the economy and shave 0.5% off of the unemployment rate. Even if claims rise this week, we can’t bet on that going forward. If you have questions regarding Rhode Island Refinance Rates, or whether or not to lock your loan, please don’t hesitate to contact me by cell at (401) 263-8655. Have a great day!

Related articles:

Daily Update for November 5th

Weekly Recap for November 8th-12th

Dan Hartman is a Senior Mortgage Advisor with Province Mortgage Associates, and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Economics at Roger Williams University and the University of New Haven. He has been helping homeowners and homebuyers with their mortgage questions for over 10 years.

Mortgage pricing has worsened each day this week, and today isn’t any better, with average pricing about .25 points higher for most rates.  Since last Wednesday’s Fed announcement, mortgage pricing is over 1.25 points worse, and average rates are creeping up, although this week’s Freddie Mac survey doesn’t quite reflect that yet.  Freddie reported the average 30-year fixed rate at 4.17% with 0.8 points this week, substantially lower than average published rates from most lenders, especially in the latter half of the week.

Consumer sentiment was reported by the University of Michigan this morning. Consumer sentiment is a measure of the degree of confidence consumers have in the economy, and is intended to measure their willingness to spend in the immediate future. The measure was reported at 69.3 this morning, up from the prior reading of 67.6 and slightly above analyst expectations of a reading at 69.0 It is still substantially lower than the most recent high point, June 2009′s 76.0.

In addition to measuring consumers’ feelings about the economy in general, the Consumer sentiment survey also asks consumers about their price expectations to gauge inflation. At present, consumers are expecting about 3% inflation in the coming year, as fuel and food prices pressure wallets.

The bigger issue affecting markets this week has been the increasingly contentious discussion about US vs. China monetary policy at the G-20 Economic Summit in Seoul, Korea. The dispute is nothing new – the US has been saying for years that China is keeping its currency from appreciating, which would make Chinese exports more expensive. Conversely, China has complained about the US’ expansionary monetary policy, especially including the recent Federal Reserve announcement of additional security purchases.

This presents a substantial challenge to China – for it to maintain its currency even with current value relative to the dollar, it needs to print additional yuan to keep up with the increasing number of dollars in circulation. The dispute has been weakening the dollar causing pressure on US interest rates.

Mortgage pricing has worsened for the past 5 days, and shows no signs of stopping. Next week could bring some relief, if inflation remains controlled, as we will get a reading on inflation, and that could cool the current sell-off in long-term fixed income. Floating has become somewhat unattractive, but for loans already mired in a float strategy, the best thing to do at this point may be to ride it out. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the good rates, but it may be a little while before they turn around. At this point, if you like your rate, lock it. If you don’t, there could be enough gains from floating to justify the risk.

Next week is clearly much busier than this from the perspective of economic data, and that could be good for rates. It could just be a brief respite before the cliff, though. If you have questions regarding Rhode Island Refinance Rates, or whether or not to lock your loan, please don’t hesitate to contact me by cell at (401) 263-8655. Have a great day!

Related articles:

Daily Update for November 5th

Weekly Recap for November 1st-5th

Dan Hartman is a Senior Mortgage Advisor with Province Mortgage Associates, and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Economics at Roger Williams University and the University of New Haven. He has been helping homeowners and homebuyers with their mortgage questions for over 10 years.

After all the other news this week, the Fed meeting results, more quantitative easing, etc., I believe that Wall Street actually yawned this morning at 8:30 when the Employment Situation report was released. Traders are looking for signs that the Fed might change directions, and this report, while exceeding expectations, didn’t have the kick needed.

Non-farm employers added 151,000 positions in October, a substantial jump from declines previously announced for August and September. Gains were strongest among private, non-government employers who added 159,000 positions. This sector has been viewed as key to moving employment in the economy forward. Government is unlikely to increase its hiring any time soon, especially with the potential for gridlock between Capitol Hill and the White House.

In addition to the strong October gains, August and September results were revised higher, erasing 90,000 prior job losses in those months.

These results were not strong enough to move the 9.6% unemployment rate.

Mortgage pricing has opened weaker this morning, and is likely to remain week throughout the day. Prices for most rates have risen by about 3/8 point. It is important to note that today’s results are a single data point following a large number of less positive data. This provides some support to the strategy of floating longer term rate locks. I would suggest locking rates on loans due to close within 30 days. I don’t feel we’ve seen the last of yesterday’s pricing levels, though. It is still safe to float longer locks.

Next week will be much quieter than this from an economic data perspective. We will see significant tests of Treasury pricing, with $72 billion going into the hopper. Apart from that, there’s not much to see.If you have questions regarding Rhode Island Refinance Rates, or whether or not to lock your loan, please don’t hesitate to contact me by cell at (401) 263-8655. Have a great day!

Related articles:

Daily Update for November 4th

Weekly Recap for October 25th-29th

Dan Hartman is a Senior Mortgage Advisor with Province Mortgage Associates, and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Economics at Roger Williams University and the University of New Haven. He has been helping homeowners and homebuyers with their mortgage questions for over 10 years.