A Holiday Week Provides Little Movement In the Market
In a week defined by extremely low trading volume and lack of action, mortgage markets idled ahead of the holiday last week.  Friday’s post-holiday action was even slower.  I think people were sleeping their holiday meals off.  Just my opinion.
After falling for two consecutive weeks, mortgage rates held […]

Rates Hit All Time Lows
Mortgage markets improved last week for the second week in row.  After the Federal Reserve said it would use “all available tools” to stimulate the economy, traders responded by driving mortgage rates to 50-year lows.
It didn’t last long, however.
Very Little Time
After bottoming out early-Wednesday morning, mortgage rates trended higher all the way into Friday’s […]

Things Are As They Seem
Last week was quite predictible.  Seriously, it was.
Look at the calendar below and you’ll see most economic reports came in as expected.  The predictions are often ugly, and the results come in matching.
Now remember, mortgage rates react to this news, but they set the ‘expectations’ where the experts do.  So, if […]

More Americans Are Loosing Their Jobs
On Friday, the Jobs Report reflected a loss of 533,000 jobs in November.  This is literally the most jobs that have been lost in 35 years.  The overall unemployment rate (nationally) rose to 6.7%.
Normally, this would have lead to an improvement with mortgage rates.  However, expectations were very low for […]

Mortgage Rate and Market Recap for the Week of November 9th -16th, 2008

You Know Retail is Bad When….
When a retail store decides to shut down 150 stores before Christmas.  The store was Circuit City.  Circuit City also filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.  This news is sort of surprising.. but really, the extremely surprising piece is […]

Mortgage Rate and Market Recap for the Week of November 3rd -11th, 2008

Unemployment Is On the Rise
Last week, the big stinker was the unemployment report.  Nationally, the US unemployment rose to 6.5% (previously 6.1%!).   Most economists expect this number to get much worse before it gets better.  I’d unfortunately have to agree.
When it comes to […]

Mortgage Rate and Market Recap for the Week of October 27th - 31st, 2008

The Fed Cuts
As you may have noticed, the Fed decision was to cut the Fed Funds Rate (FFR) 1/2% to 1% on Wednesday.  Like I mentioned last week, Fed cuts often result in higher mortgage rates.  Mortgage rates didn’t disappoint.  Overall, they […]

Mortgage Rate and Market Recap for the Week of October 6th - 19th, 2008

Big News for Bonds
As we’ve talked about in the past, mortgage rates are based directly off of mortgage backed securities.  These are much like stocks, being traded throughout the day.  This is also why mortgage rates change throughout the day.  If you’re […]

Mortgage Rate and Market Recap for the Week of October 6th - 19th, 2008

Banks Are Over-leveraged,  Congress Steps In.
I know you haven’t forgotten the $700 billion bill that was passed.  Last week, the first move was made to inject $250 billion into some of the United States largest banks.   This was an effort to […]

Mortgage Rate and Market Recap for the Week of October 6th - 10th, 2008

Banks Across the World Unite
Banks across the world decided to cut their official rates by 1/2% on Wednesday.  This is the largest move since the 1930s.  It was a BIG BIG deal.
Inflation used to be the main concern, but after consideration, the […]