13 Jan 2014
By Mark Feder
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What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – January 13, 2014

Mortgage Rates
The first post-holiday week of 2014 brought mixed economic and housing-related news. CoreLogic reported via its Housing Market Index that November home prices grew by 11.80 percent year-over-year. This was just shy of October’s year-over-year reading of 11.90 percent. As with Case-Shiller’s recently reported Home Price Indices, a slower rate of home price growth suggested to analysts that the housing market is cooling down. The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee released the minutes from its December meeting. The minutes reiterated the Committee’s decision to begin tapering its asset purchases this month. The Fed announced that it would reduce its…
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06 Jan 2014
By Mark Feder
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What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – January 6, 2014

Mortgage Rates
The last week of 2013 brought relatively good news in view of the economic roller coaster rides caused by legislative impasse. A brief shutdown of federal government agencies, and nail-biting suspense over if and when the FOMC of the Federal Reserve would taper its quantitative easing program. Last week's news was not high in volume due to the New Year holiday, but it does suggest that a general economic recovery is progressing and that housing markets are leading the "charge!". Here are the details: The NAR's data of month-to-month reading of 0.20 percent showed an increase of 0.20 percent over…
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30 Dec 2013
By Mark Feder
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What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – December 30, 2013

Mortgage Rates
The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index was improved for December at 82.5, after the November reading was adjusted from 82.5 to 75. Analysts noted that consumers were relieved when legislative gridlock ended. Durable goods orders reached their highest level since May with November’s reading of + 3.5 percent. Without the volatile transportation sector, the reading for November was +1.2 percent. This could be a sign of economic recovery for manufacturing, as more orders are being placed. Economists expected an overall increase of 2.0 percent for overall durable goods orders. The U.S. Commerce Department provided housing markets with good news…
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23 Dec 2013
By Mark Feder
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What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – December 23, 2013

Mortgage Rates
According to December's NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, home builder confidence rose by four points to a reading of 58; this surpassed the consensus of 56 and November's reading of 56. November Housing Starts were released Wednesday and also exceeded expectations and the prior month's reading. 1.09 million housing starts were reported for November against expectations of 963,000 and October's reading of 889,000 housing starts. Building permits issued in November came in at 1.01 million and fell short of October's reading of 1.04 million permits issued. November's reading exceeded expectations of 990,000 permits issued. The week's big news emerged after…
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