Archive for December, 2009
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : December 21, 2009
Mortgage markets improved last week as pricing followed a roller coaster-like pattern. After touching a 6-week high Tuesday, rates rallied to weekly lows Thursday, and then jumped back higher Friday.
Despite the improvement last week overall, mortgage pricing remains significantly worse from the all-time lows set in late-November.
Oddly, last week’s most prominent mortgage-related story wasn’t the [...]
Housing Starts Jump; Home Sellers Lament.
Housing Starts jumped last month as builders got back to business. It’s a telling sign for the economy, but bad news for next season’s sellers.
With more homes coming online, home prices may be slow to rise nationwide.
A “Housing Start” is a privately-owned home on which construction has started. In November, starts rose by nearly 9 [...]
A Simple Explanation Of The Federal Reserve Statement (December 16, 2009 Edition)
The Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate within its target range of 0.000-0.250 percent.
In its press release, the FOMC noted that the U.S. economy “has continued to pick up”, that the jobs markets is getting better, and that housing market has shown “some signs of improvement” lately.
It’s the fourth straight [...]
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : December 14, 2009
Mortgage markets worsened for a second consecutive week last week amid debt default concerns and stronger-than-expected economic data. Dollars left the bond market and mortgage rates suffered.
After re-reaching an all-time low December 1, mortgage rates have since rolled back to mid-November levels.
Rates are still low right now. Just not as low.
And meanwhile, last week’s big [...]
Falling Unemployment Rate Leads To Higher Mortgage Rates Today
This morning’s jobs report is causing mortgage rates to rise, capping a week during which rates have already jumped 3/8 percent off all-time lows.
The government’s November Non-Farm Payrolls report reinforced the notion that the recession is nearly over, if not over already.
Just 11,000 jobs were lost last month — much fewer than analysts had expected — as the [...]
