The last week since we were last here has been a little crazy! Here’s what’s happened. First, as you know, last week, the Fed had a meeting. On Wednesday, as expected, they announced that there was no change in the Fed Fund Rate, the interest rate they set. Then all heck broke loose with Fed
Last week’s biggest economic headline centered on inflation news and the consumer price data that came out showing the CPI (consumer price index) rising by 0.6 percent for the month, higher than expected. The main reason? Energy prices, mainly oil prices, which, if you’ve been to the gas station recently, is no surprise. The core
Mortgage rates improved but just by a tiny bit last week, according to the weekly survey of average rates released by Freddie Mac. The economy remains strong, and inflation has eased, but there are concerns by economists that inflation may be headed up again, thanks to rising oil prices. If you’ve been to the pump
Last week’s ‘bad’ news is good news for mortgage borrowers as we saw a nice improvement in rates. The weekly survey of average mortgage rate published by Freddie Mac showed rates breaking their momentum higher following worse than expected news from a leading indicator in the job market, inflation, and consumer confidence. The JOLTS report,
If you’ve been following economic news, then you likely have seen the headlines that mortgage rates continue to climb. According to Freddie Mac’s most recent survey of average rates, published last week, the 30-year rate has risen to its highest level since 2001. This precipitous climb over the past few weeks has come largely as
A normally innocuous event last week sent mortgage rates higher. The opening line of the Fed’s Meeting Minutes, “uncertainty of the U.S. economic outlook remains elevated…” confirmed for traders that we still don’t have certainty about the direction of inflation. Uncertainty and inflation are two of the arch enemy’s of mortgage rates, and when they
Well, even though August is vacation time for many, me included, mortgage rates have not taken a vacation from hiking higher. For the third week in a row, rates have risen bit by bit, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of average rates. Yes, it makes homes less affordable, but rates rise as a result
As expected, the Fed raised their key interest rate at their meeting last week. Fed Chair Powell commented after the announcement that they will be monitoring conditions and will raise again in September if conditions warrant. We’ll see. He said they’ll be watching the inflation numbers and two jobs reports that come out in the
Last week’s favorable report on consumer inflation helped mortgage rates improve nicely just in time for the release of Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage rate report. In it, we saw a healthy decrease in average mortgage rates for both 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate loans. However, that was last week and this is this week. This week
Last week’s inflation data showed a further slowing in the pace of inflation, which is good news for the growth and health of the economy. Since we’re discussing inflation, I thought I’d take this opportunity to remind you of the relationship between inflation and mortgage rates. In general, higher inflation also means the price of
