William Randolph Hearst was once quoted as saying "Good news doesn't sell news papers!" Sensationalizing the news is common place with the media especially regarding housing. Recently there has been good news trickling out about housing and the credit markets that are so closely related. Not surprisingly, there has been very little media coverage about these things. This note will relay some of that positive news so that you might be armed with the most up to date information to share with your clientele.

1. In a complete reversal of policy, Fannie Mae has dictated that they are changing their guidelines of requiring larger down payments in certain areas that they have determined to be distressed markets. This is effective June 1st. Why this is important is because many lenders, while not necessarily selling to Fannie Mae, replicate their guidelines.

2. Agency Jumbo loans are now priced extremely competitively with normal conforming loans. Pricing at the time of this writing would allow us to write an Agency Jumbo loan at 5.875% and no points with only 10% down.

3. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last week declared that he believes most of the big losses from mortgage backed securities are now behind us and the credit markets were stabilizing.

4. My contacts within the Wall Street Broker Dealer community tell me that they are seeing investors of mortgage products beginning to work their way back in to the buying mode. This will impact both price and product design... a positive step for our clientele.

5. Accordingly, some hedge fund investors and private billionaire investors are saying that we have touched bottom in the housing and credit market crisis and are poised to bounce. Meaning they may be potential buyers of quality mortgage products. What is so encouraging about this is that they earn their money by calling the turn in all markets.