Mortgage Rate Update October 30, 2017

My father-in-law once told me, “there is nothing more permanent than a temporary tax.”  Speaking of…. property tax statements for homes in the tri-county area are arriving in mailboxes as I type and most are increasing by greater than 3% this tax year.  I recommend reading THIS PIECE for an explanation.  If your customers have not pinged you yet on this topic I suspect some will soon.

As I wrote about last week mortgage rates have been on a brutal ride higher ever since the beginning of September.  Might we get a reversal this week?  So far so good.  Rates have stabilized this morning and pricing has improved since last Thursday.

It is an extremely busy week on the economic calendar.  Earlier today we got the latest reading of the Personal Consumption Expenditure price index.  It showed that core prices (“core” strips out volatile food & energy items) increased by only 1.3% from last year.  This is well below the Fed’s target of 2% and a friendly number for interest rates.

On Tuesday we’ll get the latest reading of consumer confidence and the Fed’s monetary policy meeting begins.  On Wednesday we’ll get the Fed’s statement (not expected to hike rates) and the ADP private payroll report.  On Thursday we get initial jobless claims and on Friday the all-important jobs report.

From a technical trading perspective mortgage rates are trading at important layers of support/ resistance.  They could break out either direction.

Current Outlook: cautiously floating