Week of July 1, 2013 - Realtor Mortgage Snapshot

How Can Higher Mortgage Interest Rates Help You?
Nobody wants to see higher mortgage rates - or do they?  While some may argue that it is coincidence, others would argue that the recent spike up in mortgage rates are helping to drive more home sales.  Pending home sales hit a 6-year high in May, up 6.7% from a month earlier and 12.1% higher than a year ago.  May's index reading of 112.3 marks the highest level since December 2006, when it hit 112.8.  Time will tell if this is simply a short term uptick due to on-the-fence prospective buyers jumping into the market before rates could continue to climb, or part of the larger trend we've seen the last two years of home sales climbing.  Either way, it doesn't look like the dramatic jump in interest rates poses any threat to the housing recovery at this point.

                    


Last Week's Mortgage Rates Recap
Last week saw a rebound in mortgage rates as the market took a break from the previous week's huge losses.  We saw mortgage rates improve by anywhere from .125% to .250% depending on program and lender.  Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) ended the week up almost 100 basis points, compared to losing almost 300 basis points the week before.  Last week's MBS recovery puts us almost exactly in between the technical Support and Resistance levels.




This Week's Mortgage Rates Forecast
Mortgage Rates Currently Trending: EVEN
This week should prove to continue the trend of volatility, with traders closely monitoring economic data to try and assess what the Fed will do and when it will do it.  Friday may be especially volatile, with the market being closed on Thursday in observance of the July 4th holiday, as well as opening up with Monthly Employment Data and the Weekly Jobless Claims.  Also driving Friday's volatility will be Europe's ECB meeting on Thursday.

BOTTOM LINE:  While we saw some slight improvement to mortgage rates last week, it is not enough to be a trend of improvement.  Remember that lenders are quick to increase rates on poor MBS market performance, but much slower to improve them.  Smart consumers realize that the best rates are far behind us, and are watching the live MBS (Mortgage Backed Securities) market with their Mortgage Loan Originator to stay a step ahead of lender reprices to protect their mortgage interest rates.
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