Bad News for the Economy Leads to Good News for Mortgage Rates

July 6, 2009

It Was a Calm, Short, Holiday Week Mortgage markets were relatively calm throughout last week’s holiday-shortened trading sessions.  After mortgage rates traded within a tight range between Monday and Wednesday, a weak jobs report helped move rates lower into the weekend. For the second week in a row, mortgage rates ended the week lower than […]

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What Will The Fed Say This Week? More Importantly, Will It Move Interest Rates?

June 22, 2009

The World Is Listening Rates changed quite a bit from day-to-day, and even from hour-to-hour at times. This is the same brand of mortgage rate volatility we’ve seen all year and it’s expected to continue through at least this week, too.  There are a number of market-moving events set to hit. The event with the […]

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Last Week Was a Mortgage Rate Rollercoaster!

June 22, 2009

The Volatility Continues Mortgage markets finished out the week unchanged last week but that’s not to say that mortgage rates stayed flat throughout the week. From day-to-day, mortgage rate shoppers were on a roller coaster. Monday and Tuesday, rates dipped Wednesday and Thursday, rates surged higher Friday, rates retreated back Overall, conforming mortgage rates carved […]

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Mortgage Rates Made a Rally to Improve Late Last Week

June 18, 2009

Three Weeks In a Row of Rising Rates It’s a bit late, but I wanted to explain what the heck happened last week in the mortgage market.  As you may have heard, the mortgage market roller coaster continued.  Markets worsened badly in the early part of last week, before rallying into Friday’s close. Overall, mortgage […]

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Some Homes If Not Repaired Could Suffer Major Expenses

June 13, 2009

Trying to Time Home Repairs? When your finances are tight, you’re are often forced to choose between making home repairs right away, and putting them off until finances improve. Some repairs, though, become more expensive if not tackled ASAP.  The hard part is knowing which fixes those are. In this 5-minute piece from The Today […]

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Home Sales in Des Moines Down 13% from 2008, But Showing Improvement

June 13, 2009

What’s The Real Estate Market Doing? Do you ever wonder how our real estate market is here in Des Moines? Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time listening to how rough things are in other cities around the country, but too often we don’t really consider what our real estate climate is like. I’m a […]

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Will We See a Change In Pace for Mortgage Rates This Week?

June 8, 2009

No Data, Count On Emotion Without much new data this week, markets are likely to trade on emotion — a difficult situation for rate shoppers.  Conforming mortgage rates have been extremely volatile since May and are changing every few hours.  If you see a rate you like, consider locking it. Wait around too long, and […]

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Mortgage Markets Were Hammered Last Week. What Happened?

June 8, 2009

Good News For The Economy Is Bad News For Mortgage Rates The economy reflected stronger-than-expected news last week.  Unfortunately, this reignited fears of inflation on Wall Street.   The ‘positive’ economic news caused conforming mortgage rates to rise by another 1/2 percent last week.  This marks the second week in a row of soaring mortgage rates […]

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Mortgage Rates Hike Two Weeks In a Row!

June 7, 2009

The Ugly Reminder Mortgage rates soared again Monday, tacking on a half-percent in a day for the second time in under a week. For reference, each half-percent adds $62 to a $200,000 home loan’s monthly payment, or $744 per year. No, it’s not the end of the world, but it’s real money. I Can Relate […]

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Buyers May Lose Their Edge as Sales Increase

June 4, 2009

Number of Homes Sold Soars The number of homes under contract to sell increased significantly in April, climbing nearly 7 percent nationwide versus just a month ago. It’s the third straight month that the Pending Home Sales Index gained and the biggest monthly jump since October 2001, the month prior to the end of the Early […]

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