Mortgage Rate Update April 28 , 2014

Posted on by Evan in Rate Update, Swanson Home Loans Blog - Mortgage Rate Updates and More

Mortgage rates are mostly unchanged from last week.

The economic calendar is packed this week.  Here are some of the highlights:

  • Monday: Pending Home Sales

  • Tuesday: Case-Shiller Home Price Index

  • Wednesday: Federal Open Market Committee monetary policy statement, Gross Domestic Product & ADP employment report

  • Thursday: Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index & Jobless Claims

  • Friday: All-important Jobs Report

The week kicked off today with pending home sales from the National Association of Realtors.

PENDING HOME SALES FOR FEBRUARY WERE UP FROM FEBRUARY BUT LOWER COMPARED TO THE SAME MONTH LAST YEAR.
PENDING HOME SALES FOR FEBRUARY WERE UP FROM FEBRUARY BUT LOWER COMPARED TO THE SAME MONTH LAST YEAR.

 In the west, new contracts signed increased by 5.7% from February but was 11.1% lower than March of 2013.  The NAR continues to blame winter weather for the slowdown compared to last year.

From a technical perspective, mortgage-backed bonds (MBS’s) have bounced lower off a technical layer of resistance that has essentially held since March 4th.  This means that mortgage rates may be at the best levels unless we get a run of poor economic data this week.  Since I don’t forecast that to be the case I will shift to a locking outlook.

Current Outlook: locking