Real Estate News & Tips for Central Texas
Mortgage Rates Start Higher, But Fall in Afternoon
More often than not, mortgage lenders only set rates once a day. Their decisions are based on trading levels in the underlying bond market. Even though bonds are constantly moving, it doesn't make sense for lenders to make a change unless a certain threshold of market movement is surpassed.&nb
Mortgage Rates Start Week Slightly Lower as Election Volatility Works Both Ways
Love it or hate it, election-related volatility has been having a big impact on the bond market and, thus, mortgage rates. Most of the volatility has resulted in higher rates, but there was an exception over the weekend. Due to a combination of shifting odds in betting markets and among
Rates Refuse to Drop Ahead of Election. How About After?
It is our longstanding policy to strictly avoid politics except in cases where the political realm legitimately intersects with relevant events for rates. Now is clearly one of those times. The discussion that follows contains no opinion or partisan leaning. Before getting started, let's catch up wi
Mortgage Rates at 4 Month Highs. More Volatility Ahead
Mortgage rates rates moved moderately higher today, and while that leaves the average 30yr fixed rate only slightly higher than it was on Tuesday morning (7.09 vs 7.08), it's also the highest rate in almost exactly 4 months. In a break from recent norms, the bond market didn't take cues from data or
Economic Data Keeping Pressure on Mortgage Rates
The jobs report that came out at the beginning of October was a big wake up call for interest rates. Up until then, the prevailing belief was that the labor market was progressively softening and perhaps at risk of softening too quickly. The Federal Reserve had singled out the jobs marke
Mortgage Rates Hit Another Multi-Month High Despite Afternoon Recovery
Mortgage rates tend to be updated only once per day. Lenders set rates based on trading levels in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) which are essentially bonds that are tied to cash flows from groups of mortgages. MBS move throughout the day much the same way that US Treasuries do.
Mortgage Rates Back to 7%
It's no mystery that mortgage rates have had a terrible October. As of last Friday, the average lender's top tier 30yr fixed rates were up to 6.90--an increase of more than 0.625% this month. Today's 0.10% increase brings the rate index up to 7.0% exactly which is the highest we've seen
Mortgage Rates Effectively Unchanged Yet Again
Mortgage rates reached their highest level of the week on Wednesday and haven't really moved since then. Technically each subsequent day saw a microscopic reduction in the average top tier 30yr fixed rate, but the average borrower would likely be seeing the same quote all three days. This flat
Mortgage Rates Finally Win One, Albeit a Small One
Mortgage rates have risen every day since October 15th and some of the jumps have been fairly big. That followed an even bigger increase earlier in the month with the whole ordeal accounting for a 0.72% increase in 30yr fixed rates since October 1st. Today's trading session offered a break fro