Category: rates

Today, the Department of Labor reported that 175,000 jobs were added last month. This is higher than analysts were expecting. Consensus called for about 100,000 jobs to be added. This positive news for the economy will undoubtedly cause mortgage rates to rise somewhat. We will find 30 year fixed rate conventional mortgages in the high 4% range, & 15 year  fixed rate conventional loans will struggle to remain below 4%. In an unusual inversion, government loans (FHA & VA) along with jumbo mortgages (loans greater than $417,000) are running somewhat lower than conventional loans, by about 1/4%. These loans are...

Mortgage interest rates continue to remain favorable, & over the past few months, there has been very little “trending”, either up or down. The U.S. 10 year treasury note has bounced between a yield of 2.60% & 3.0% over the last three months, which is a fairly tame range. The 10 year note is often viewed as a market bellwether, & mortgage rates tend to follow the direction of this treasury security. Thirty year fixed rate mortgage loans remain in the 4.5-4.75% range, & fifteen year fixed rate mortgaged remain below 4.0%. These rates assume that no points are being paid, and will...

Interest rates have remained flat to slightly lower over the course of the last week. The Federal Reserve ended their most recent FOMC meeting this past Wednesday. This was the last FOMC meeting to be chaired by Ben Bernanke, & the new Fed chairperson, Janet Yellen takes the wheel from here. The meeting was anti-climatic, lending credence to the lack of movement of interest rates. The Fed is continuing down its path to taper it’s purchase of government bonds. As expected, they reduced their “quantitative easing” purchase by another $10 billion, which was widely anticipated. Mortgage interest rates on a 30 year...