bond market: Understanding mortgage rates: fixed rate loans
- 06/15/07 08:56 AM
(This article is the first of a three-part series on understanding different types of mortgage interest rates.)To understand interest rates in long-term fixed rate loans, the first thing to do is tune out the media noise around the Fed and the Prime Rate. Long-term mortgage interest rates are based on the bond market -- specifically, how the bond market is trading the U.S. 10-year Treasury bonds. In short, when the price for bonds goes up, long-term interest rates go down (or, to put it in terms that you'll understand by the end of this article, long-term mortgage rates move up and (2 comments)