03 Feb 2014
By Mark Feder
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What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – February 03, 2014

Mortgage Rates
Last week brought mixed news; while the Department of Commerce reported a dip in new home sales, mortgage rates also fell. The Federal Reserve's FOMC statement revealed that quantitative easing would be further reduced by an additional $10 billion monthly. New Home Sales: Y-O-Y Reading Best Since 2008 December's reading of 414,000 for new home sales fell short of November's revised reading of 445,000 new homes sold as well as expected sales of $455,000. The consensus figure was based on November's original sales reading of 464,000 new homes sold. The inventory of new homes available rose from last month's level…
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27 Jan 2014
By Mark Feder
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What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – January 27, 2014

Mortgage Rates
Last week was an action-packed week for economic news, and all of it was packed into Thursday: Weekly Jobless claims came in at 326,000 which was lower than the expected 330,000 new claims. This week's claims were higher than the prior week's 325,000 new jobless claims filed. The NAR released its Existing Home Sales Report for December; sales of existing homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.86 million. December's reading fell shy of estimates of 490 million existing home sales, but the estimate was based on November sales that were later adjusted downward to 4.82 million sales…
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20 Jan 2014
By Mark Feder
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What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – January 20, 2014

Mortgage Rates
Welcome news arrived last week as lower mortgage rates and a higher number of housing starts were reported. Other economic news was mixed: The Federal Reserve released its Beige Book Report released last Tuesday indicated modest economic growth throughout the 12 Federal Reserve districts. Analysts predicted that this would cause the Fed to further reduce the volume of monthly asset purchases made under its quantitative easing program. The Atlanta, Cleveland and Kansas City districts reported slower home sales, which supported recent expectations of slowing gains in home prices.  Mortgage Rates Dip, Housing Starts Up According to Freddie Mac, average mortgage…
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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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