John R. Wood Realtors placed 89th in the nation in closed sales volume for 2009! This exciting news was just published in the current issue of REALTOR magazine. Only two Naples brokers are named in the survey; John R. Wood and Downing Frye, and JRW achieved the highest ranking. Michael Saunders, a Sarasota company with whom we have close ties, ranked 75th with $1.143 billion in closed sales and 554 agents, versus JRW at $942,000,000 and 258 agents. Clearly, we win hands down in production per agent!!

You already knew that we had the highest closed volume of any Southwest Florida broker in 2009, but it is great to receive this national recognition.

WHAT WILL AFFECT MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES for the week of July 12^th 2010?

This week's economic calendar could cause home loan rates to change trend. Bond prices have been rocketing higher with home loan rates moving lower... but history tells us that a reversal is in store - it's just a matter of when.

On Wednesday, we’ll see the Retail Sales figures for June, as well as the Meeting Minutes from the past Fed meeting. Although the Fed hasn't made any major policy changes as of late, the meeting minutes are still closely watched by the markets for any stray comments or discussion on matters such as inflation or the "extended period" language regarding rates.

Thursday contains a number of reports on manufacturing and inflation. The Philadelphia Fed Index and the Empire State Index will both be released Thursday morning. We'll also see the latest reports on Capacity Utilization and Industrial Production, as well as the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level.

On Friday we’ll see the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation at the consumer level. Remember, inflation is the archenemy of Bonds and home loan rates, so it will be important to see what these reports reveal.

We'll also see the weekly Initial Jobless Claims report on Thursday morning. Last week's number came in better than expected and showed an improvement over the previous report, which gave the financial markets a glimmer of hope. It also gave Bond investors an excuse to take a little profit off the table - since Bonds have been priced for perfection, and any blip in the economic data is providing reason to preserve profits.

In addition to those reports, the Treasury Department will auction $69 Billion this week. The good news is, the $69 Billion total represents the lowest offering in a year - and when this "low" figure was announced last week, it helped Bond prices improve.

Remember: Weak economic news normally causes money to flow out of Stocks and into Bonds, helping Bonds and home loan rates improve, while strong economic news normally has the opposite result.

FREDDIE MAC’s NATIONAL WEEKLY MORTGAGE INTEREST RATE SURVEY (Lagging Survey Data taken 07-08-10):

30 Year Fixed - 4.67% + .7dp

15 Year Fixed - 4.07% + .7dp