Mortgage Rate Update April 1, 2011
Mortgage rates are priced a little worse this morning.
In anticipation of a strong jobs report mortgage rates actually worsened yesterday afternoon. This morning the all-important jobs report showed that 216,000 new jobs were created (230,000 added by the private sector) last month and the unemployment rate ticked down to 8.8%. The figures are slightly better than expectations but not so much so to push rates higher.
February & March show two consecutive months of job growth in excess of 200,000 jobs. Some economists are ringing the bell that the economic recovery is finally on a sustainable path. In fact, some Fed officials are even calling for the Fed to discontinue QE2 which is a quantitative easing program designed to help keep rates low.
Even if the Fed follows through with their plan QE2 is scheduled to end in June so the days of government intervention to help rates low are drawing to a close.
For now, mortgage rates are hanging on to current levels thanks to technical trading support. However, from now until the end of the year I would expect rates to rise on more days than they decline. I will maintain a long-term locking bias.
Current outlook: locking bias