“Firmer Economy, Firmer Rates”

Just as we predicted in our last Market Trends Newsletter, improving economic conditions brought upward pressure to mortgage rates last week. According to the latest issue of HSH’s Market Trends Newsletter, “Firmer Economy, Firmer Rates,” even though would-be refinancers haven’t welcomed the higher rates, the upward pressure may actually help the economy.

“Investor money formerly stuffed into the safe haven of Treasury bonds is beginning to filter out into other areas of the economy, and the sooner that normalization takes place, the quicker the economy will experience actual recovery.”

“HSH’s Fixed-Rate Mortgage Indicator (FRMI) — a measure of the overall cost of mortgage credit since it includes conforming, jumbo and “high-limit” conforming data — rose by 18 basis points (0.18%)to 5.82%, the same increase as we saw last week, and the highest it’s been in three months. The FRMI’s 5/1 hybrid counterpart rose by nine basis points to land at 5.24%.”

“Conforming 30-year fixed rate mortgages have suffered somewhat more than private-market jumbos, rising from a flat 5% for the week ending May 22 to 5.45%. Jumbos have risen by only 16 basis points over a comparable period.”

Click here to continue reading “Firmer Economy, Firmer Rates.” HSH’s free weekly Market Trends Newsletter, an in-depth analysis of various financial markets of the week prior, is published every Monday. Email subscribers receive it in your inbox by Friday night, so sign up today! Also, be sure to check in with our Market Trends blog for all news relating to any weekly shift in mortgage rates.”