Uncategorized

While any rate watcher’s bingo card should always have a few squares devoted to “unchanged, flat, etc.,” this week’s had at least as many squares reserved for a big reaction to inflation data.  Specifically, Tuesday’s inflation data had the power to cause a big move in rates.  While it was the week’s biggest influence, rates […]

Despite all of the economic data and news headlines over the past few days, mortgage rates have barely budged since last Friday. That was not what we expected this week given the anticipation for the inflation reports that came out on Tuesday and Wednesday. Now today, a seemingly balmy Retail Sales report (something that would

This morning brought another inflation report. Given the negative reaction to yesterday’s inflation data, there was some cause for concern. Thankfully, today’s data was more unequivocally acceptable for the bond market and–thus–interest rates. Bonds improved fairly well into the late AM hours, but then, the drama! Actually, there wasn’t much drama for mortgage rates, but

Mortgage rates are based on bonds and bonds don’t like inflation.  When inflation reports are higher than the market expected, rates tend to rise, all other things being equal.   But today’s inflation numbers were a bit lower than the median forecast. This scenario is typically more likely to push rates lower.  Indeed, in the first

Today’s movement in mortgage rates, in and of itself, is barely worth mentioning.  The average lender remains close enough to Friday’s levels but is technically just a hair higher.  That fact is offset by the counterpoint that most of the past two months saw higher rates. The future is far more interesting than the present–specifically,

Yesterday, we characterized the prevailing mortgage rate momentum as “broadly sideways,” and while that’s still very true in the bigger picture, words like “up” and “higher” might need to be sprinkled in this week. For those with a glass-half-empty approach, today’s rates are the highest of the week and the highest since June 24th.  For

Most of this week’s mortgage rate movement has been an aftershock following last week’s jobs report. That data sent rates quickly higher and that momentum has gradually faded over the past few days. In fact, yesterday finally saw an improvement.  Now today, things are minimally changed, depending on the lender. Most lenders issued at least

It’s a bit of a stretch to refer to the past week as a “losing streak” for mortgage rates. The worst part about it was the consistency of upward movement starting last Wednesday. In terms of the size of that movement, things have been less traumatic considering the average lender was still at the lowest levels

Bad news first: mortgage rates have been moving steadily higher in July with the average top tier 30yr fixed scenario rising from 6.67% to 6.81% in just 4 business days.  This isn’t an incredibly abrupt move, but it’s slightly brisk compared to the average day of rate movement. The good news is twofold. First off,