It’s never fun when this weekly newsletter has back to back headlines concerning rates moving higher, but facts are facts. The average lender is back in line with the highest levels since March 20th. What went wrong and are there any silver linings?
At the simplest level, the past several months of interest rate movement can […]
While interest rates are always a topic of conversation in the housing and mortgage markets, everyone was talking about them last week. That tends to happen when the average 30yr fixed rate threatens to break into the high 3% range after a long absence. But just as quickly as the good times started to roll, rates […]
Since February 28th, the average mortgage rate quote for the average lender dropped by roughly half a percentage point. That makes March 2019 the best month for rates since the Fed first announced quantitative easing (the bond buying program that targeted mortgage rates) in late 2008.
It’s no small coincidence that Fed bond buying was responsible for the […]
Things were starting to look pretty scary for housing up until a few weeks ago. There was a chance that some of the weakness was temporary. Last week’s strong Pending Home Sales report provided some hope, but we didn’t have any other big housing reports to validate the hope… until now.
New Home Sales were as low […]
The last 2 months of 2018 marked a solid run for mortgage rates. December was particularly good, with rates falling at the fastest pace in at least at least 4 years. Balance that against the fact that early November saw the highest rates in more than 7 years!
It’s not uncommon to see rates fall more […]
This week’s biggest housing-related headline was the drop to a 3-year low in Existing Home Sales. This is just the latest in a series of reports that suggests housing has turned some sort of scary corner. But drawing the line between fear and reality can be a matter of perspective.
Has housing data actually weakened in the past year? Undoubtedly! […]
Interest rates have enjoyed several months of prosperity without any major bounce back toward higher levels, but that might be changing as of this week. Could this be the last time we see rates this low for a while?
The answer depends on the definition of ‘a while.’ There’s always some risk that rates will rise for longer than we might […]
