Mortgage rates have fallen by over a full percentage point since Q4 of 2018, settling at near-historic lows. This is big news for buyers looking to get more for their money in the current housing market.
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MCLEAN, Va., March 28, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Freddie Mac(OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing that the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped 22 basis points.
Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, says, “The Federal Reserve’s concern about the prospects for slowing economic growth caused investor jitters to drive down mortgage rates by the largest amount in over ten years. Despite negative outlooks by some, the economy continues to churn out jobs, which is great for housing demand. We have recently seen home sales start to recover and with this week’s rate drop we expect a continued rise in purchase demand.”
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MCLEAN, Va., March 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing that mortgage rates dropped with the beginning of spring homebuying season.
Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, says, “Mortgage rates have dipped quite dramatically since the start of the year and house prices continue to moderate, which should help on the homebuyer affordability front. The combination of improving affordability and more inventory than the last few spring selling seasons should lead to improved home sales demand.”
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Today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing that mortgage rates rose after weeks of moderating.
Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, says, “While mortgage rates very modestly rose to 4.41 percent this week, they remain below year-ago levels for the fourth week in a row. In late 2018, mortgage rates rose over a full percentage point from the prior year, which was one of the main reasons that weakness in home sales continued into early 2019. However, the impact of recent lower rates and a strong labor market has led to a rise in purchase mortgage demand as we start the spring homebuying season.”
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Freddie Mac(OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing that fixed-rate mortgages fell to the lowest levels since early 2018.
Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, says, “The combination of cooling inflation and slower global economic growth led mortgage rates to drift down to the lowest levels in a year. While housing activity has clearly softened over the last nine months and the lingering effects of higher rates from last year are still being felt, lower mortgage rates and a strong job market should rekindle demand for the spring homebuying season.”
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Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey(PMMS), showing that mortgage rates moved up slightly after weeks of moderating.
Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, says, “Purchase applications were down this week after soaring early in the year. However, softening house price appreciation along with increasing inventory of homes on the market – and historically low mortgage rates – should give a boost to the spring homebuying season.”
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Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remained unchanged for the third consecutive week.
Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, says, “Mortgage rates have stabilized during the last month and are essentially at the same level as last spring – yet the most recent home sales are roughly half a million lower over the same period. Given that the economy remains on solid footing and weekly mortgage purchase application activity has been strong so far in 2019, we expect the decline in home sales to moderate or even reverse over the next couple of months.”
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Interest rates for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage climbed consistently throughout 2018 until the middle of November. After that point, rates returned to levels that we saw in August to close out the year at 4.55%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
After the first week of 2019, rates have continued their downward trend. As Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist Sam Khater notes, this is great news for homebuyers. He states,
“Mortgage rates declined to start the...
By James Brooks
The bond market is up 12/32 (3.19%), which should improve Raleigh Area mortgage rates by approximately .125 of a discount point.
October's Producer Price Index (PPI) was released at 8:30 AM ET this morning, revealing a 0.6% jump in the overall reading and a 0.5% in the core data. Both
readings were well above expectations of 0.2%, indicating inflationary pressures at the manufacturing level of the economy were much stronger than many had thought. That makes the data bad news for bonds and mortgage rates. Fortunately, traders are not relying solely on this data this morning or we could have seen a noticeable sell-off in bonds.
Also posted this morning but at 10:00 AM Et was November's preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment. They announced a reading of 98.3 that fell in the middle of October’s final reading of 98.6 and what analysts were expecting (98.0). The decline is good news because it means surveyed consumers...
By James Brooks
The bond market is up 4/32 (2.96%), which should improve Raleigh Area mortgage rates by approximately .125 of a discount point.
There is nothing of importance taking place today. We are seeing bonds react favorably to fairly heavy selling in stocks. Stocks are reacting to more trade war speculation as China retaliated against the U.S. latest batch of tariffs on goods from China.
The tariffs are believed to be a hurdle for the economy, restricting corporate profits and economic growth. Since stocks are usually pro-economic growth and bonds tend to thrive in weaker economic conditions, we are seeing stocks down and bonds up slightly today.
The rest of the week brings us the release of only three pieces of monthly economic data that may affect mortgage rates and none of them are considered to be highly important. This should be a much calmer week for mortgage rates than last week was. If we see a big move in mortgage rates, it likely will not be a result of the economic...
