Trends In Mortgage Rates : What The Fall Season Brings To Rate Shoppers
Mortgage Market Update
From the desk of Joe Bailey
Keeping You Informed…
Trends In Mortgage Rates : What The Fall Season Brings To Rate Shoppers 
Like in 2006, 2007 and 2008, autumn 2009 is marked by falling leaves and falling mortgage rates.
The trend looks more like a pattern.
Based on Freddie Mac data of the last 4 years, 30-year fixed mortgage rates rise from January through August, and fall through fall. There’s 6 weeks left until January. The clock may be ticking for today’s home buyers and rate shoppers.
Conforming and FHA mortgage rates are sub-5 percent right now and, by most measures, there’s no good reason for it.
- The U.S. dollar is extremely weak — usually a negative force on mortgage rates
- The price of gold reflects a healthy fear of inflation — usually a negative force on mortgage rates
- The stock market is on a tear — usually a negative force on mortgage rates
Furthermore, the economy is no longer in free-fall which is the scenario that dropped rates below 5 percent in the first place. Mortgage rates are poised to rise and, when they do, they’ll rise in a hurry.
See, that’s the other trend in mortgage rates. Rates rise much faster than they fall. Just ask anyone on the wrong side of the Memorial Day Massacre about how that turned out. As low as rates are now, we could be looking at 7 percent mortgage rates in a flash.
Timing mortgage markets is impossible.
As a homeowner, it’s easy to keep up with rate trends on a weekly basis with the newspaper or the aforementioned Freddie Mac data, but markets move faster than that. They’re minute-by-minute and ever-changing. Unfortunately, laypersons don’t get access to mortgage bond data for free. Even the U.S. Treasury market fails as a proxy anymore.
“Play like a champion today!”
Joe Bailey - Loan Officer
O. (831) 689-8500
C. (831) 251-5167
Posted in Mortgage Market Updates | No Comments »