Over the past 7 trading days, Mortgage rates were wounded with 2 of the largest one-day spikes in over 2 years. Rates rose last week with average rates a 30-year fixed rate mortgage rising from last week’s 3.35 percent to 3.42 percent with buyers paying all closing costs and 0.7 percent in discount points.
We are in a definite “locking” bias at the moment. As I am publishing this blog, rates are still trending worse this Monday morning. Continue reading
Mortgage rates fell again last week and are again near record lows.
According to Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 15-year fixed rate mortgage did achieve a record low of 2.61 percent as compared to 3.1 percent one year ago.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell to 3.40 percent and near the record low of 3.31 percent.
Low mortgage rates are helping homeowners with refinancing and are boosting housing markets as more buyers can qualify for mortgage loans. Continue reading
The minutes for the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held March 19 and 20 were released on Wednesday April 10, 2013. These periodic meetings by the FOMC cover a wide-ranging group of topics that impact the overall economy in the United States.
The decisions made and acted upon from the FOMC meetings often sway the real estate and residential financing markets. Some highlights of the recent FOMC minutes for the March meeting include: Continue reading
The Federal Reserve’s statement after yesterday’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting left no doubt as to the Fed’s dual commitment to keeping long-term interest rates down and encouraging economic growth. But there were a few subtle changes to the Fed’s current bond-buying program made during today’s FOMC meeting.
The Fed buying bonds and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) works by boosting bond prices, which typically helps with keeping mortgage rates lower. Instead of the Fed’s monthly purchase of $85 billion in bonds and MBS per month, they will now make the call if they want to reduce these purchases, depending how well the economy is performing. Instead of turning this quantitative easing (QE) OFF or ON, they can use the concept of a “dimmer” switch instead. Continue reading