Rate Update August 5, 2010

Mortgage rates are unchanged this morning.

All eyes are focused on tomorrow’s monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Typically this report will shape the directon of mortgage rates for the following few weeks.

In general, when the employment figures in this report are reported better than expected mortgage rates rise and vice versa.  Analysts are currently calling for 70,000 jobs lost in the month of July.  However, the loss is mainly due to temporary US Census workers re-entering the unemployed workforce.  It is expected that the report will show 100,000 private sector jobs created.

Although this seems aggressive to me it is very difficult to predict employment numbers; especially during an economic recovery.  The safe play is to lock in ahead of tomorrow’s report.

Current outlook: locking