Unfortunately, the market said “thank you” to us in a different way. Mortgage bond prices were lower last week, which pushed mortgage interest rates higher. But wait a minute. Didn’t the press have headlines on Thursday and Friday that mortgage rates have hit “new record lows”? Well, sorta, kinda. The weekly average 30 year mortgage rate for purchase mortgages in the Freddie Mac survey published on Thursday showed a drop from 3.89% to 3.88%. That’s right – a drop of 0.01% – AND the stories all neglect the noteworthy fact that it took .8% in discount points to get to that rate.
So we have a “record new low” in mortgage rates plastered on the headlines on Thursday and Friday from a survey that looks backwards, while REAL mortgage rates actually increased in the REAL marketplace. Inflation fears (which bondholders hate) were reignited when the core producer price index came in higher than expected. Germany had a successful 2Y debt auction, which alleviated some of the short-term Euro debt concerns. Germany has been one of the few bright spots for the Euro and is credited with keeping other Euro nations afloat. Spain and France also had decent debt auctions later in the week, which also reversed some of the flight to quality buying of US debt we saw recently. And, the weekly jobs data wasn’t as bad as expected which also added to MBS losses for the week.
Add to this the continued effect on mortgage rates of the increased guarantee fees from Freddie and Fannie which I talked about in last week’s blog – Unintended Consequences – and we saw mortgage rates actually rose during the mid-week as mortgage bonds ended the week worse by approximately 1/2 of a discount point. Our best execution pricing is now holding around 4% with 0 points for a 30 year fixed rate conforming purchase mortgage with all the normal disclaimers about down payment, credit scores, loan size, etc.
Here's the link to my rate sheet online if you want to see what I'm quoting today for Real Estate Professionals: <a href="http://www.box.com/s/c1pk887l4lk1ds33sfed" title="http://www.box.net/shared/bxjyydagau http://www.box.net/shared/uks538ajcm” target=”_blank”> Baxter Rate Sheet
Have a great weekend and never hesitate to contact me if you need something – hit the cell, send an email, pop a text, or contact me on Twitter or Facebook. And, if you need to get a buyer pre-approved? Just send them to my secure online application – Baxter Online Mortgage Application – Click on “Start Your Application”
