Don’t look now, but rates continue to rise as geopolitical uncertainty continues to increase due to the conflict in Ukraine and the war in Israel. However, here at home, the economy and incomes continue to grow even as the housing market becomes less affordable. As a result, the housing market is seeing less purchase demand.
The markets and mortgage rates, too, have been on a seesaw ride of volatility as high-impact economic data and geopolitical events in Israel have increased uncertainty about the economy and the Fed’s next move. Let’s break it down… As you know, last week, we saw a parade of employment reports come out, which can often
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
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,
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
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
This week is a case of good news, bad news. Good news is that the economy is proving to be resilient and the housing market strong. The downside of this situation is that inflation continues to persist, a factor that is pushing mortgage rates higher. The robust housing market is also causing inventory to be
This time of year, with summer and long holiday weekends it seems the markets and even rates move sideways and this week has been no exception. In fact, “Mortgage rates have hovered in the six to seven percent range for over six months and, despite affordability headwinds, homebuyers have adjusted and driven new home sales
