Mortgage Rate Update January 5, 2012

Mortgage rates are unchanged today.

Fairly positive economic data here in the US, which would normally put upward pressure on interest rates, is being tempered by comments by Greek officials.

The Labor Department reported that the number of people filing for unemployment benefits fell by more than expected.  According to payroll processor ADP 325,000 new jobs were created last month.

This is amount is approximately double the expectations for tomorrows government employment report.

On the surface this looks like very positive news for the economy (and subsequently bad news for rates).  However, skeptics are saying the results are misleading because of the methodologies under which the data is collected and because more and more households are seeing their unemployment benefits run out.  Thus far the markets agree because rates have yet to rise on this data.

Greek officials warned that unless they are able to secure another round of concessions from creditors they could run out of money by March.  This has caused investors to grow worried about the possible domino effect on the European financial markets which is probably why rates here in the US have not risen on the economic data.

Current Outlook: neutral