August 28th Best Mortgage Interest Rates and Lock Recommendation

By: Liz Freeman
August 28th, 2009  

Mixed data leaves mortgage rates largely unchanged. While the stock market has dipped a bit (which is normally good for mortgage-backed securities or MBS rates), and while personal income remained flat and there wasn’t a hint of inflation to worry about, consumer spending was up (mostly attributed to the Cash for Clunkers program) and the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment index came in slightly higher than expected.

August 27th Best Mortgage Interest Rates and Lock Recommendation

By: Liz Freeman
August 27th, 2009  

If you’ve been watching mortgage rates to get your jollies then you have had a boring week so far. Give up a bit today, take it back tomorrow. And the movements either way have not been large enough to write home about or affect anyone’s mortgage rate much. Yesterday’s Treasury Department’s 5 year note auction was deemed a success, with above-average demand allowing lenders to continue to offer attractive mortgage interest rates.

August 26th Best Mortgage Interest Rates and Lock Recommendation

By: Liz Freeman
August 26th, 2009  

Program
Rate

30 Year FRM
5.13%
Better by .01%

15 Year FRM
4.28%
Better by .02%

5/1 Year ARM
3.85%
Better by .02%

Jumbo 30 Year FRM
5.62%
Better by .03%

Here is today’s look at best mortgage rates, (which do not include discount points, origination points, or loan level risk based price adjustments) provided by Mortgage News Daily, Freddie Mac, and other sources. Note that Freddie Mac’s AVERAGE more...

August 24th Best Mortgage Interest Rates and Lock Recommendation

By: Liz Freeman
August 19th, 2009  

Rates hung in there virtually unchanged as the stock market took off–although there were bumps during the day as the National Association of Realtors released their report showing much stronger sales of existing homes than expected. This caused stocks to hit ‘09 highs and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to get clobbered in the marketplace–briefly.

August 18 Best Mortgage Interest Rates and Lock Recommendation

By: Liz Freeman
August 18th, 2009  

The stock market recovered some this morning, and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and bonds gave back some of their gains from yesterday, likely based on reports that inflation is unlikely to be a problem for some time. Of course, the downside of that is the consumers keeping a tight hold on their wallets doesn’t help the economy and it’s fragile enough as it is.

August 17th Best Mortgage Interest Rates and Lock Recommendation

By: Liz Freeman
August 17th, 2009  

The stock market has been battered this morning, reacting to losses in international markets that occurred while we were enjoying the weekend. Remember the term I mentioned Friday? Tape-bombs, which are events that occur when the markets are closed over the weekend and affect our finances while we can’t do anything about it.

August 14th Best Mortgage Interest Rates and Lock recommendation

By: Liz Freeman
August 14th, 2009  

Treasuries performed so well yesterday at auctionj it seems to have spilled over into today’s market. Bonds and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) moving even higher (meaning rates get to go lower). In fact, with foreign and domestic investors exhibiting more enthusiasm for debt as the week progressed, Treasury prices could head even higher, analysts say.

August 13th Best Mortgage Interest Rates and Lock Recommendation

By: Liz Freeman
August 13th, 2009  

Today’s mortgage-backed securities (MBS) markets got a bounce, nice enough to make up for the beat down they’d been receiving earlier in the week. First, there were higher-than expected weekly jobless claims–which leads to less consumer spending– really kicking the economy but benefiting the bond and MBS–meaning lower mortgage rates. Economists expectation’s called for continued improvement in the labor sector with only 543,000 claims but got more. In addition, new claims are going down not because people are finding jobs, but because their benefits are expiring–a major economic problem and worry for the Fed.

August 12th Best Mortgage Interest Rates and Lock Recommendation

By: Liz Freeman
August 12th, 2009  

Today’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcement has shaken up the industry unexpectedly. Purchases of long-term US Treasury debt will end in October and has been limited to $300 billion. FOMC’s conclusion is that the economy is likely to remain weak but that its policies and actions will be purposed to create a gradual recovery and “promote smooth transitions in markets.”