Mortgage markets improved slightly last week. With a dearth of new U.S. economic data due for release, investors turned their collective attention to the Europe, China, and the Middle East. U.S. mortgage rates fell slightly in the holiday-shortened week. The combination of civil protests, economic slowdowns, and growing political tensions caused investors to dump risky assets in favor of the relative safety provided by the U.S. mortgage bond market. According to Freddie Mac, the average conforming 30-year fixed rate mortgage is now 3.39% nationwide for borrowers willing to pay 0.7 discount … [Read more...]
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : October 9, 2012
Mortgage markets worsened last week for the first time in a month as the U.S. economy showed signs of improvement, and the Eurozone stepped closer to launching its $500 billion euro rescue fund. Conforming mortgage rates in Arizona rose last week on the whole -- even though Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey proclaimed that they fell. This occurred because Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rate survey is conducted between Monday and Tuesday each week and, last week, mortgage rates were lower when the week began. Through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, however, they rose. According … [Read more...]
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : October 1, 2012
Mortgage rates dropped to another all-time low last week as concerns for global economic growth helped U.S. home buyers and refinancing households nationwide. U.S. mortgage rates responded to non-U.S. events and, for rate shoppers and home buyers in Phoenix , home affordability improved. Early in the week, with Greece and Spain debating new austerity measures, and with citizen protests rampant, a flight-to-quality helped to boost demand for U.S. mortgage bonds. So did rumors of a weakening Chinese economy. "Flight-to-quality" is a trading term for when investors shun investment risk in … [Read more...]
