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Tag Archives: Mortgage rates
Mortgage rates have made significant drops to near or at record lows for this week. The 30-year fixed rate hit the record low on February 29th at 4.10%; today, the 30-year fixed rate is at 4.11%. The 15-year fixed rate hit a new record low at 3.32% this week. The 5-year adjustable rate hit record low, as well, on February 1st at 3.02%; today, the 5-year adjustable rate is at 3.03%. These substantial drops are due to the debt crisis in Europe with Spain and Italy and the latest job report disappointment.
The drops are mostly due to the Spain and Italy debt crisis coming back. Investors
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Mortgage rates have surprisingly dropped this week, after two weeks of them rising. The 30-year fixed rate dropped to 4.23% and the 15-year fixed rate dropped to 3.44%. The 5-year adjustable rate dropped the most to 3.14%. Since last week, there has been some unexpected downturn in the economy reports, causing rates to lower again.
Last week investors were taking their money out of the Federal Reserve Treasury Bonds and putting it back into the stock market, causing the rates to rise. The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, had an interview on television this past Tuesday, on March 27th, which caused consumer confidence in the economic recovery to drop. During the interview, he said, “We haven’t quite got to the point where we can be completely confident that we’re on track to a full recovery.”
With the rising gas prices and the inflation in the economy, the Consumer Confidence Index has decreased to 70.2 for March, which is a 1.4 point drop since February. The housing market is another factor affecting the economy. The prices of homes continue to drop, as well as the amount of homes being sold. In January, the price of homes had dropped 3.8 percent, according to the 20-city Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index report that was released Tuesday, March 27th. Even though the Realtors Index decreased 0.5 percent in February, it is still better than a year ago.
With the volatility of the mortgage rates, homebuyers and homeowners have been holding off on applying for a mortgage or for a refinance. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, there was a 2.7 percent decline in mortgage applications last week, compared to the prior week. The amount of refinance applications, dropped as well, by 4.6 percent from the prior week. This is the sixth week in a row that the amount of refinance applications has dropped.
With all of the economic uncertainty, the mortgage rates will most likely be volatile over the coming weeks. Waiting may not be the best solution while rates are still low right now. You may want to lock in the rates now so you don’t end up with a higher rate in the end.
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Mortgage rates have lowered, once again, this week. The 30-year fixed rate hit another record low at 4.10%. The 15-year fixed rate and the 5-year adjustable rate lowered just slightly, by 0.01% and 0.02% respectively. The 15-year fixed rate is now at 3.35% and the 5-year adjustable rate is now at 3.03%. With the strengthening U.S. economy, rates would be assumed to rise, but the debt problem in Greece is holding the rates down where they are.
The manufacturing figures and the retail sales report for the U.S. were released this week, showing an improvement in the economy. The manufacturing figures show the production volume in U.S. factories. In December production increased by 1.5 percent and in January it increased 0.7 percent. The increase in December was the biggest growth in manufacturing in five years. The retail sales report for January was released this week and was not what was expected. In January sales picked up slightly, rising 0.4 percent. These increases show that the economy is starting to pick up again.
The housing report was also released this week showing that there was a rise in the housing market index. For those who may not know, the housing market index measures builders’ assessments of current single-family home sales, traffic from potential buyers, and sales expectations for the next six months. The housing market index rose from 25 in January, to 29 in February. While this number is low for the housing market index, it is the highest that the index has been since May of 2007. It has been rising over the past three months showing some improvement in the housing market, which also shows an improvement in the economy.
With the debt problems still going on in Greece the investment community feel it is the safest to leave their money in the U.S. Treasury bonds. On Wednesday, February 15th, the Greek leaders agreed on a new financial bailout plan. This would normally be a good sign of a recovery in Greece but there are concerns that some of the creditors will delay bailout funding until after the elections in April. Regardless, Greece is undergoing challenging time, with civil unrest being a huge issue as well.
Like last week, rising oil prices are likely to put a heavy blanket over the economy. Again, it spells trouble in consumer spending, which has huge influence over the broader economy. With the exception of oil, everything on Wall St. seems to be in full Bull mode, with the DOW eclipsing the philological 13,000 mark, it seems rather peachy. Typically, this would put mortgage interest rates on an upswing, that hasn’t happened to this point.
With the economy and the Greece debt undecided, mortgage rates will most likely hover around where they are now. However, once Greece completes the EU bailout plan it may be a caveat for rates to increase. If oil remains at their present level, expect it to weigh on the overall economy, which would hold down rates. Then theirs Iran…
Mortgage rates have jumped back up slightly, this week. The 30-year fixed rate went from the record low, of 4.10% to 4.16%. The 15-year fixed rate went up 0.03% to 3.38% and the 5-year adjustable rate went up 0.09% to 3.12%.
Last month the sale of previously owned homes has picked up at a very fast rate. This 
hasn’t happened in almost two years now. It has increased by 4.3 percent generating 4.57 million units purchased, from December. Generally, purchased units are around 6 million, for a healthy number of sales. This shows that the amount of homes being purchased is starting to go up and is a good sign for the spring buying season.
With rates being low a lot of people are refinancing their mortgages. Last week, Freddie Mac released their refinance activities report. The report showed that the number of refinancers who have switched from a 30-year fixed mortgage to a 15-year fixed mortgage is the highest it has been in 8 years.
Mortgage rates are fickle, being pushed up or down by many different variables. However, this week Iran and now Syria are becoming serious international concerns, and may weigh negatively on the economy, more specifically oil prices. The rates will stay around where they are for now, but may come down a bit on growing concerns in the Middle-East.
For more information on mortgage rates check back here as we feature this report once a week. For information on Staten Island real estate and the latest new homes for sale on Staten Island you can follow the corresponding links.
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Mortgage rates have lowered, once again, this week. The 30-year fixed rate hit another record low at 4.10%. The 15-year fixed rate and the 5-year adjustable rate lowered just slightly, by 0.01% and 0.02% respectively. The 15-year fixed rate is now at 3.35% and the 5-year adjustable rate is now at 3.03%. With the strengthening U.S. economy, rates would be assumed to rise, but the debt problem in Greece is holding the rates down where they are.
The manufacturing figures and the retail sales report for the U.S. were released this week, showing an improvement in the economy. The manufacturing figures show the production volume in U.S. factories. In December production increased by 1.5 percent and in January it increased 0.7 percent. The increase in December was the biggest growth in manufacturing in five years. The retail sales report for January was released this week and was not what was expected. In January sales picked up slightly, rising 0.4 percent. These increases show that the economy is starting to pick up again.
The housing report was also released this week showing that there was a rise in the housing market index. For those who may not know, the housing market index measures builders’ assessments of current single-family home sales, traffic from potential buyers, and sales expectations for the next six months. The housing market index rose from 25 in January, to 29 in February. While this number is low for the housing market index, it is the highest that the index has been since May of 2007. It has been rising over the past three months showing some improvement in the housing market, which also shows an improvement in the economy.
With the debt problems still going on in Greece many people feel it is the safest to leave their money in the U.S. Treasury bonds. On Wednesday, February 15th, the Greek leaders agreed on a new financial bailout plan. This would normally be a good sign of a recovery in Greece but there are concerns that some of the creditors will delay it until after the elections in April.
With the economy strengthening and the Greece debt undecided, mortgage rates will most likely stay around where they are now. But if Greece implements the bailout plan, we could start to see the mortgage rates increasing.
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February 11 Real Estate Staten Island Mortgage Rate Report
Mortgage rates have started to increase this week. The 30-year fixed and the 15-year fixed rates increased by 0.02%, making them 4.14% and 3.36% respectively. The 5-year adjustable rate has increased by 0.03% making it 3.05% this week. These increases could be caused by the positive economy and employment market reports released last week. However, the EU debt situation in Greece and how debt negotiations pan out will prove piv
otal to interest rates. The European Debt Crisis is weighing on the minds of the institutional investment community, and have not bought into the idea of moving substantial sums of investors’ money from treasuries into equities. The improvements in the unemployment have caused some to dabble a bit in equities, but tepidly, leading to this weeks slight rise in mortgage interest rates.
Mortgage applications also surged last week, up 7.5%. About 80% of these applications were for refinances. Since the rates last week hit record lows, it explains why there was an increase in mortgage applications. Everyone is trying to get the lowest rates possible at this point and now is a good time.
To sum it up; with the release of the employment report for January, many thought that the mortgage rates were going to increase substantially. The report showed a gain in jobs and was better than economists expected it to be. However, the rates didn’t increase as expected, mainly because investors are still skeptical for now.
With the Fed trying to keep mortgage rates low until late 2014 and the positive economy reports, rates may start to rise. If they do, it will most likely be over a long period of time, and it will happen little by little each week.
February 4 Staten Island Mortgage Rate Report
Mortgage rates took a turn for the better this week and plummeted down to new record lows. The 30-year fixed rate fell to 4.12%, the 15-year fixed rate dropped to 3.34%, and the 5-year adjustable rate lowered to 3.02%. The main reason the rates dropped so low is from the Fed’s announcement last week to keep key federal funds rate near zero until late 2014. The European debt crisis and the slow U.S. economy are other reasons as to why rates dropped.
President Obama made a speech in Falls Church, VA on Wednesday, February 1st, about the poor housing market. He wants to help struggling homeowners refinance. Since the HARP and HARP 2.0 programs are only for mortgages that are owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac he is proposing an additional program. This program will allow homeowners to refinance through FHA-insured loans, if Congress passes it. The program would call for lenders to be charged a fee to help fund it. Also the president stated that he wants to condense the mortgage application to one page by removing all of the legal information that homeowners and buyers may not understand, by doing this the application becomes simpler.
This would be a great program that homeowners and the economy could both benefit from. Now homeowners just have to wait to see if Congress will pass this program and hope that if they do mortgage rates will still be low. With the drop in mortgage rates this week we can see that they are volatile and there is no predicting what they will do next.
See more information on Staten Island real estate.
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January 29 Real Estate Staten Island Mortgage Rate Report
Mortgage rates have continued to hike higher this week. The 30-year fixed rate jumped from 4.18% to 4.25%, an increase of 0.07%. The 15-year fixed rate increased 0.06%; it went from 3.39% to 3.45%. The 5-year adjustable rate increased from 3.06% to 3.09%. Even with the Fed trying to keep mortgage rates low, the debt crisis in Europe, and the U.S. economy and job market not making a big improvement, the mortgage rates have been increasing slightly over the past couple of weeks.
These increases could be from a couple of different reasons. One could be the gained confidence in the U.S. economy. Another reason could be that the European debt crisis is not getting closer to any resolution, so investors may have started to become accustomed to it. Also, the increase in mortgage fees is pushing mortgage rates up.
With the mortgage rates increasing, there has been a decline in mortgage applications and refinance applications. Mortgage applications had dropped 5 percent last week. With the rising rates and the decline in mortgage/refinance applications, the Fed wants to keep rates low. The Federal Open Market Committee met on Wednesday, January 25th, and decided to keep the key federal funds rate near zero until late 2014. This will try to help keep rates low, but since the federal funds rate is not directly connected to mortgage rates it is not a total guarantee. They also stated that to help keep rates low they will still reinvest in long-term securities and mortgage-backed securities.
There is no way to tell if mortgage rates will rise or fall. The best thing would be to take advantage of the low rates now and lock them in, since we have been seeing them increase lately.
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Morgage Trend Chart 1-12
Another week and the mortgage rates are still keeping record lows. The 30-year fixed rate stayed at 4.18% while the 15-year fixed and 5-year adjustable rates fell. The 15-year fixed rate is at 3.38% and the 5-year adjustable rate is at 3.04%. The European debt crisis, the slow moving U.S. economy, and the Fed are all keeping rates low. However, Congress may be slowing mortgage activity due to their decision to increase mortgage fees.
The increase in mortgage fees means a higher interest rate or higher points for borrowers. This fee increase is not supposed to take effect until April 1st, but mortgage lenders are already transferring the fees onto borrowers that 
lock rates for 45 days. The increase in interest could be anywhere from 0.125% to 0.25%. Another part of the act that Congress passed is that FHA loans will increase premiums on mortgage insurance. This does not have a set date of when it will go into effect but many expect it to happen in April, as well.
Even though Congress increased the fees for mortgages, this is not a big problem now since the rates are so low already, but it can cause an issue in the future when rates start to increase. With the Fed trying to keep rates low and the Congress increasing mortgage fees, the rates may actually start to increase in the coming weeks.
For more information on Staten Island real estate or new information regarding mortgage rates, check us out daily or follow the corresponding link.
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As we welcome the New Year, we also welcome lower mortgage rates. The 30-year fixed rate hit another record low of 4.18%, and the 15-year fixed rate also 
hit a record low of 3.40%. The 5-year adjustable rate decreased as well to 3.19%.
Even with the positive U.S. economic news the mortgage rates are still decreasing. This is because investors are still not comfortable with the recovery of the European debt problems. European leaders are going to be holding a summit on January 30th to help figure out how to solve the debt crisis. After this summit investors might be more confident in the recovery process and we could see mortgage rates start to increase. However, some are not so sure there is a solution to Europe’s
As for homeowners and homebuyers, they are hoping that the mortgage rates will still decrease and are waiting for lower rates before refinancing or buying a home. This is a risky move since rates are fickle. For the homeowners who do have to wait for the HARP 2.0 refinance program, the updated program won’t be in effect until March.
For more information on Staten Island homes for sale, commercial real estate and more contact RealEstateSINY.com at 718-668-0423
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