Mortgage Rates: Tear Down This Wall!

On Wednesday we witnessed the second stage of a potentially significant shift lower in home loan borrowing costs. "The Wall" was wavering, teetering in its most precarious position this year, but we needed more proof that it was ready to be toppled. That confirmation could only be granted by today's high-risk event: The Employment Situation Report. We needed to reinforce the rally with a weak jobs report. And that's exactly what we got..... Job growth in May was much weaker than expected. The April...

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Mortgage Rates: Seeking Confirmation

Yesterday we witnessed the second stage of a potentially significant shift lower in home loan borrowing costs. While these developments were encouraging, short-term reversals remained a constant threat. Today we were reminded of those short-term threats as investors took interest rate profits ahead of tomorrow's "high-risk" event: The Employment Situation Report. As a result bond prices fell and benchmark interest rates rose, pushing consumer borrowing costs marginally higher. Fortunately loan pricing...

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Mortgage Rates: High-Risk Event Ahead

The holiday shortened week ahead will culminate with a high-risk event: the release of the monthly Employment Situation Report on Friday morning. This economic event will likely offer solid guidance on the state of not only the broader economy but "The Wall " that continues to block mortgage rates from making further positive progress. On Friday we discussed changes in the context of "The Wall" , noting that it might be on the verge of toppling over after an abrupt drop in borrowing costs last week...

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Mortgage Rates: Illustrating Positive Progress

"The Wall" absorbed a direct hit yesterday. A sizeable crack is now visible in the metaphorical structure that stands in the way of lower mortgage rates. And while the damages inflicted are not yet viewed as irreparable, "The Wall" is indeed on the verge of toppling over. This is an encouraging development for intermediate to long-term rate watchers. Sideways mortgage rate behavior followed by an abrupt drop is apparent in the updated chart of Consumer Rate Quotes below. If the line is moving up...

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Mortgage Rates: Tear Down This Wall?

"The Wall" absorbed a direct hit today. A sizeable crack is now visible in the metaphorical structure that stands in the way of lower mortgage rates. And while the damages inflicted are not yet viewed as irreparable, "The Wall" is indeed on the verge of toppling over. This is an encouraging development for intermediate to long-term rate watchers. Intraday price appreciations in the secondary mortgage market were large enough to warrant multiple reprices for the better from lenders. As a result we...

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Mortgage Rates: Illustrating the Wall

Home loan borrowing costs continue to hover near seven month lows. Continued improvements have however been hard to come by since the recent rally hit a wall. We've entered a period of stagnation. Sideways behavior is apparent in the chart below of Consumer Rate Quotes. If the line is moving up, origination costs are rising for the particular note rate offer. If the line is moving down, costs are getting cheaper. The chart above compares the average origination costs (as a percentage of loan amount...

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Mortgage Rates: Illustrating the Wall

Home loan borrowing costs continue to hover near seven month lows. Continued improvements have however been hard to come by since the recent rally hit a wall. We've entered a period of stagnation. Sideways behavior is apparent in the chart below of Consumer Rate Quotes. If the line is moving up, origination costs are rising for the particular note rate offer. If the line is moving down, costs are getting cheaper. The chart above compares the average origination costs (as a percentage of loan amount...

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Mortgage Rates: Loan Pricing Worse. Best Ex Unchanged

Although borrowing costs rose today, the newly updated Best-Execution mortgage rate offering we discussed yesterday remains unchanged. Unfortunately, the instances of lenders offering these more aggressive "Current Market" quotes are fewer and farther between. In short, the wall blocking mortgage rates from continued positive progress began to crack yesterday. Today's price action added a few globs of spackle to those cracks in attempt to keep the wall standing. CURRENT MARKET : The "Best Execution...

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Mortgage Rates: Wall Hit

Home loan borrowing costs have hit a wall. Since reaching the best levels of the year on Friday of last week, rates have been unable to improve further. That isn't a bad thing because they haven't exactly worsened either. Consumer rate quotes have instead held closely to the best levels of the year. It reminds us quite a bit of early March, when closing costs stagnated for several days after rapidly improving. You'll see "the wall" we've hit in this week's updated chart, which compares origination...

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Mortgage Rates: If You've Been Waiting....

Despite some volatility earlier in the day, Best-Execution mortgage rates and borrowing costs are unchanged vs. yesterday's offerings. After spending the first four months of 2011 in a narrow range, we're still still in the midst of a potentially significant shift lower in home loan borrowing costs . But such shifts almost always see periods of weakness interspersed within the larger positive trend. If you've been waiting to lock a mortgage rate for a few weeks, now's probably going to be one of...

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