Quick look at mortgages in NW Indiana

I'm moving too quick to get out the door onto the icy roads, so can't post a full mortgage market update this morning, but a couple quick things to watch, give me a call if you need rates or have a pre-qual today.

• Initial jobless claims came in higher than expected, again this labor recovery is having a hard time getting started. This continues to dampen potential gains and makes us all realize that a whole lot of people are out of work. Sadly, this will help mortgage rates stay at the 5% or just under 5% rates we've been reporting for the last week. Overall, a record 12 million Americans received federal and state unemployment benefits on an unadjusted basis in the week ended Jan. 2, the latest period for which the data is available" (from marketwatch)

From the home building industry -Two other trends in home construction are contributing to the declining square footages: The prominence of first-time buyers in the housing market and the increasing number of households with members 55 and older who are buying homes.

First-time buyers, driven into the market in good part by the availability of an $8,000 tax credit, are more likely to compromise on home size in exchange for a lower price. And the 55+ crowd tends to purchase single-story homes, which generally are smaller because of the land costs that favor the more-efficient two-story plans.

"Barely over half of new homes today are built with two stories or more," Quint said. Two-story homes peaked at about 55% of the market in 2006.

For 2010, home builders say they will focus on lower-priced models and smaller homes. More than 95% of builders surveyed by NAHB in January said that was the way they saw their business evolving this year.

The penchant for smaller homes will necessitate some design changes. See the Top 10 must-have features that home buyers say they want in their houses today.

Builders, attempting to respond to those consumer demands as well as hold the line on prices, told the

NAHB surveyors that they were most likely to include these features as standard in their houses this year: