Like a gift that shows up just in time, mortgage rates showed improvement for the third week in a row, offering the gift of greater opportunity and affordability for home buyers venturing out for this year’s peak home-buying season. According to Freddie Mac’s latest survey of average rates, the 30-year fixed rate improved by .10
Once again, it’s been an interesting week as last Friday we saw mortgage rates hit their lowest levels in over 6 weeks as investors continued to brace themselves for bad news in the banking sector. Uncertainty like this draws investment funds out of the stock market into the bond market, which in turn can help
The volatility in rates and financial markets gave us a nice improvement in mortgage rates over the past two weeks. However, now as fears about the banking sector subside somewhat we’ve seen rates move back up again out ahead of an important Fed Announcement this week. Watching the markets over this last week is a
Well, all signs are pointing up this week and last, so mortgage rates have behaved accordingly. For the second week in a row, the trend for rates has been upward, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of average 30-year and 15-year conventional mortgages. It’s kinda a double-edged sword of good news, and bad news because
Following the strong jobs report and the Fed’s interest hike that I wrote about in last week’s update, it’s no surprise that mortgage rates moved higher in the most recent survey of average mortgage rates by Freddie Mac. According to Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “The 30-year fixed-rate continues to hover close to six
Wow. Freddie Mac is reporting that as of last week’s survey of average mortgage rates, the rates have dropped enough since November that as many as 3 million more home buyers can qualify for and afford a median $400,000 mortgage! Since that report, however, there’s been increased volatility in markets and rates thanks to two
We’ll have to wait and see, but Redfin published a recent report declaring that, according to their data, the housing market has bottomed out and the recovery has begun. The report points to the number of customers requesting first tours of homes rose 17 percentage points from its low in November. Also, the number of
Again this week I’m happy to report that Freddie Mac’s weekly survey shows that the trend for mortgage rates continues to improve. We saw the average rates for 30-year fixed mortgages drop by .18 percent, just this week; and the 15-year average rate fall by .24 percent! Freddie Mac’s chief economist, Sam Khater, commented that
Home sales have been slow lately, as you’ve seen me write over these past few weeks; however, I’m seeing some demand signals start to perk up. Redfin reported that their Homebuyer Demand Index, which measures home tour requests and Google searches for homes for sale, is showing a 6 percent increase in buyer activity. Freddie
As mortgage rates remain elevated to start the year, we’re seeing buyers step back to the sidelines to wait and see what this year will bring for the housing market and mortgage rates. This is typically a slower time of year for housing sales and mortgage applications, so it’s not that surprising, however, this year
