“THE ONLY THING THAT SHOULD SURPRISE US…IS THAT THERE ARE STILL SOME THINGS THAT CAN SURPRISE US.” (Francois De La Rochefoucauld) Yet mortgage bonds and home loan rates sure had a surprise last Friday morning, as the Jobs Report arrived with a bang. Analysts were expecting about 175,000 new jobs created during April, but the Report showed 274,000 jobs created! In addition to the estimates being blown out of the water, the past two months were revised upwards to add almost another 100,000 jobs as well.

The strength in the Job market is good news for housing, even though this good economic news will pressure rates a bit higher. Home loan rates moved about .125% higher on Friday alone.

The other spot of news for the week was last Tuesday, but the Fed delivered no surprise. They acted as expected, ratcheting up short-term interest rates by another .25% and keeping their Policy Statement largely intact, still using the term “measured pace” as pertaining to future rate increases.

BUT HERE’S A SURPRISE THAT MIGHT NOT BE A PLEASANT ONE…DID YOU KNOW THAT YOUR NAME, BIRTHDATE, CURRENT AND PRIOR ADDRESSES AND EVEN PHOTO’S OF YOUR HOME ARE READILY AVAILABLE ON THE WEB – EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU ARE “UNLISTED”? BE SURE TO READ THIS WEEK’S REVEALING MORTGAGE MARKET VIEW, AND LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF.

Will the week ahead hold any surprises for home loan rates? The Jobs Report can certainly set the tone for home loan rates for days and even weeks to come…and with a lack of high impact reports on the calendar this week, mortgage bonds and home loan rates will likely be driven by technical factors in the wake of the Jobs Report, with few surprises in store.

On a technical level, Bonds have been severely “overbought” for weeks – meaning there have been more buyers than sellers, and the price was driven up accordingly, helping home loan rates improve. But the trend seems to have turned, and mortgage bonds and home loan rates will likely worsen a bit over the next week as Traders continue to react to the hot Jobs Report.

You have an unlisted number…so everything is private, right? Would you be alarmed to know that even when you are “unlisted”, a perfect stranger can look you up online, see your address, birth date, past addresses, and even see a photo of your home, down to the detail of your child’s play set out in the back yard? Alarmed yet? You should be.

Take a look at this website: www.zabasearch.com. Simply plug your name in, and you are likely to be surprised, and probably a bit distressed to see all the information that is readily available online.

How could this happen? Easy.

Virtually every major change in your life is recorded somewhere in a government document. When you are born, a birth certificate is issued. When you obtain a driver's license, get married, buy a house, file a lawsuit – all of these events are recorded in public documents easily available to you and to others.

Government records are intentionally public in order to enable citizens to monitor the government and to ensure accountability in our society. The challenge is to balance the public’s right to information with the individual's right to privacy.

The two main federal privacy laws are the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Freedom of Information Act, but they apply only to federal government agencies. And they almost seem to conflict with each other, as the Privacy Act deals with keeping government records about an individual confidential, while the Freedom of Information Act is commonly used to pry open government files. But these laws are attempts to balance the public's right to know…against the rights of an individual to retain their own privacy.

For more information, view this helpful website: Your Privacy Rights

So how can you get removed from the ZabaSearch site? You can “opt out” by sending an email to info@zabasearch.com. The email request must contain your full name, date of birth, address, telephone number and list of records to be removed (i.e. if multiple addresses are listed, list each address). Do yourself a favor, and take just a minute right now to get yourself removed from this list – then forward this article to your friends and family as well.

Following last week’s string of power-packed reports, the calendar is relatively light this week. The highest impact report will arrive on Thursday with the release of Retail Sales for April.

Remember, as a general rule, weaker than expected economic data is good for rates, while positive data causes rates to rise.

For the week of May 9 – May 13