LOUDOUN COUNTY Housing Supply Decreases, Good for Housing:

In the latest release of the National Association of Realtors' Existing Home Sales report, there were some very interesting facts.  Even though they reported a month-over-month decrease of 2.6% in existing home sales, they revised February's data upward. The NAR said even with March's decline, the pace of sales in the first three months of the year marked the strongest first quarter since 2007.

But the real gem is the inventory data.  The nation's glut of unsold homes is easing, as inventories fell to 2.37 million. Realtors in some markets have even reported shortages of housing stock. A decrease in the amount of homes on the market is always good for housing as it stabilizes and even drives prices upward.  Nationwide, the median price for a home resale rose to $163,800 in March, up 2.5 percent from a year earlier.

An improving labor market has realtors upbeat about sales prospects for the rest of the year.

Distressed home sales accounted for only 29 percent of resales, down from 34 percent in February, which is also a very positive trend.

What Happened to Rates Last Week?

 Mortgage backed securities (MBS) gained +15 basis points from last Friday to the prior Friday which caused mortgage rates to move sideways. 
The highest rates of the week were on Tuesday and the lowest rates of the week were on Friday.
MBS traded in a very narrow range all week as we had a light week in terms of the economic data that was released.
Retail Sales were much better than expected but Initial Jobless Claims and Existing Home Sales were worse than expected, there were no major Treasury auctions to guide the market last week.