Interest rates move up this week

Interest rates for buying a home on the Palos Verdes Peninsula moved up this week . The following are excerpts from the newsletter on interest rates published by HSH Associates :

"The uptrend in mortgage rates carried into this week, but certainly with less velocity than we've seen since the election was decided two weeks ago. Where rates will go from here depends on a host of factors, not the least of which is incoming economic data and how this will affect any policy decisions by the Federal Reserve.

Minutes from the November 2 central bank get-together were released this week. The discussions and details firmed up the suspicion that a rate hike is coming shortly, as the minutes noted that "Most participants expressed a view that it could well become appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate relatively soon..." and went on to say that "Some participants noted that recent Committee communications were consistent with an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate in the near term and or argued that... such an increase should occur at the next meeting. A few participants advocated an increase at this meeting...". With this as a backdrop, the collective opinions of "most", "some" and "a few" all point to a change in policy come December. There was no mention of any concern about any effects of the then-imminent presidential election, so it isn't clear if they might view the unexpected outcome as disruptive to their policy plans or not.

The recent rise in mortgage rates shouldn't do much damage to the housing market. Rates are only about at levels we began 2016 at, and not much of a deterrent to the desire to buy a home. That said, it will likely be a few months before we see if there are effects, but at least as far as available data goes, the market is doing fairly well.

Markets are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, and Friday is certain to be a thin day in financial markets, even as the retailer's Black Friday bonanza (and the poorly-named "cyber mondayy") give us a sense of how the consumer is feeling about spending money. After that, the usual first week of the month slew of data is due out. As other interest rates edge higher still, mortgage rates are also firming a little bit, but the selloff looks a little tired at this point. We'll likely see another 5 basis point or so rise in Freddie's conforming 30-year fixed rate mortgage by the time next week comes to a close."

The following are interest rate quotes from American California Financial: