Weekly Mortgage Rate Update (April 11th, 2016) Hagerstown, MD Real Estate

How Rates Move:

Conventional and Government (FHA and VA) lenders set their rates based on the pricing of Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) which are traded in real time, all day in the bond market.  This means rates or loan fees (mortgage pricing) moves throughout the day, being affected by a variety of economic or political events.  When MBS pricing goes up, mortgage rates or pricing generally goes down.  When they fall, mortgage pricing goes up.  Tracking these securities real-time is critical.  For more information about the rate market, contact me directly.  I’m among few mortgage professionals who have access to live trading screens during market hours.

Rates Currently Trending: Neutral

Mortgage rates are trending unchanged this morning. Last week the MBS market was essentially unchanged.  The MBS market was fairly calm last week.

This Week’s Rate Forecast: Neutral

We have a very light week for domestic economic data and there are no Treasury auctions this week.

Housing: While there are no major economic reports that have the gravitas to move rates, we do get a lot of housing data that will give us a very good read on the health of our housing market. The most import report of the week is Wednesday’s Existing Home Sales report for March. The market is expecting a nice gain from February’s reading of 5.080M up to 5.300M this time around. Also this week we get the Home Builder’s Index, Mortgage Applications, New Housing Starts, Building Permits and FHFA Home Price Index.

China: While we await a glut of domestic housing news this week, China’s home prices in March rose at their fastest pace in two years which is another sign that things are stabilizing there.

This Week’s Potential Volatility: Low

There’s not a lot of news coming out this week that should move mortgage rates.  Of course oil is the wild card that could push mortgage rates out of the very tight channel that we enjoyed last week.

Bottom Line:

If you are looking for the risks and benefits of locking your interest rate in today or floating your loan rate, contact your mortgage professional to discuss it with them.

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