My Mind on Mortgages

Normally I’m not a huge PIMCO follower.  In case you don’t know PIMCO is the world’s largest bond investment money manager and home to many top name economists and analysts.  The comments made by PIMCO officials often get headlines almost like an official of the Fed. And although I don’t “goon” for PIMCO like many [...]

Mortgage rates are unchanged from Friday. This week’s schedule for US Treasury fixed-income securities auction: The US Treasury is scheduled to sell a high volume of T-bills, notes, and bonds this week. On Monday, $6 billion in Treasury-inflation-protected 19.5-year notes will be auctioned; along with $32 billion in 13-week bills and $31 billion in 26-week [...]

Mortgage rates are unchanged from yesterday (mortgage rates moved modestly higher yesterday. See this morning’s you tube video to learn more about the cause of mortgage rates increasing and what we can laern from it. The chart below shows mortgage rates ticking higher after hitting a low:

Sometimes words can be louder than actions.  As we expected in yesterday’s ‘rate update’ mortgage rates have improved modestly this morning thanks to Ben Bernanke’s assurances that the Fed has the tools to curb future inflation (even though no action has been taken thus far). We pointed out earlier in the month the importance of [...]

Mortgage rates appear poised to move lower this morning.  Despite positive earnings reports that have helped stocks to move higher, mortgage-backed bonds have rallied this morning thanks to comments made by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Watch today’s you tube video for details on what he said. Click this link to view Fed Chairman Bernanke’s Op-ed [...]

Mortgage rates opened up level with yesterday but appear poised to move higher this afternoon in response to a small rally in the stock market. Signs of economic stabilization have helped stocks move into positive territory. The Commerce Department reported this morning that housing starts in the month of June increased by 3.6% which is [...]

Mortgage rates are higher this morning. See today’s you tube video for an explanation. We are shifting our outlook to a neutral stance because mortgage-backed bond prices appear to have technical support at the current levels. Should prices dip below support we will shift our outlook to locking. Tomorrow the Labor Department will be releasing [...]

Mortgage rates remain unchanged from Friday.  With the lack of any significant economic data out today we expect mortgage rates to take direction from the stock market. Currently stocks are trading modestly higher following positive comments made by banking analyst Meredith Whitney on CNBC this morning.  Her comments have helped push financial stocks higher.  If [...]

According to this article featured in the Economist magazine back at the beginning of July the markets are currently less certain about the future prospects of long-term interest rates (i.e. mortgage rates). The chart to the left shows that the “implied volatility” in the interest rate market has increased rather significantly since the beginning of [...]

Overall mortgage rates are essentially unchanged this morning. Although mortgage-backed bond prices declined yesterday afternoon threatening to push mortgage rates higher; they have rallied this morning on weaker than expected consumer confidence figures. Early on in 2nd-quarter earnings season there hasn’t been too many surprises.  The bulk of reports will begin to roll out next [...]