Below is an excerpt from of our latest Market Trends newsletter, Keith Gumbinger’s latest examination of the economic conditions that influenced mortgage rates. Sign up to receive the Market Trends in your inbox Friday evening.

There were not many fresh additional economic signals out last week to work with, but with the better-than-hoped for April employment report driving stock markets higher, less might actually be better, since rising equity prices often drag interest rates upward with them.

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Rates on the most popular types of mortgages moved in slightly different directions, with a drop for fixed rates and a slight climb for ARMs, according to HSH.com’s Weekly Mortgage Rates Radar. The average rate for conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell by three basis points (0.03 percent) to 3.51 percent. Conforming 5/1 Hybrid ARM rates increased by two basis points, closing the Wednesday-to-Tuesday wraparound weekly survey at an average of 2.61 percent.

“Compared with the last quarter of 2012, the economy grew at a faster rate in the first quarter of 2013, but only at a muted pace, and with a decidedly soft end in March. Since then, there have been few signs of improvement, so mortgage rates remain in a flat-to-falling pattern,” said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com. “The Federal Reserve finishes their regular policy meeting today, and it seems likely that policies to keep both interest rates and mortgage rates low will remain fully in place for the foreseeable future.”

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Below is an excerpt from of our latest Market Trends newsletter, Keith Gumbinger’s latest examination of the economic conditions that influenced mortgage rates. Sign up to receive the Market Trends in your inbox Friday evening.

The effects of weak economic headwinds do produce some tangible benefits. There may be silver linings to be seen among the clouds of economic slowness, at least for some.

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All good things don’t come to an end. Or at least they don’t always end as soon as was originally planned.

The latest example is the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), which was scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2013, but has now been extended an additional two years to Dec. 31, 2015. Read the rest of this entry »

Rates on the most popular types of mortgages declined, with 30-year fixed rates sliding nearly a tenth of a percentage point to their lowest level since mid-January, according to HSH.com’s Weekly Mortgage Rates Radar. The average rate for conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell by nine basis points (0.09 percent) to 3.59 percent. Conforming 5/1 Hybrid ARM rates decreased by three basis points, closing the Wednesday-to-Tuesday wraparound weekly survey at an average of 2.62 percent.

“The March employment report was far weaker than expected, with just 88,000 new hires,” said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com. “This raises concerns that the economy is losing traction as spring unfolds, perhaps following the same pattern seen over the last two years.”

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Below is an excerpt from of our latest Market Trends newsletter, a weekly examination of the economic conditions that influenced mortgage rates. Sign up to receive the Market Trends in your inbox Friday evening.

Building political tensions and saber-rattling from North Korea, Japan going nearly all-in on quantitative easing, and a worrisome downshift in economic activity helped bonds to rally last week, driving some yields down to 2013 lows. Mortgage rates followed right along, moving downward somewhat, offering a little better opportunity for folks to finance or refinance with rates a little nearer to record lows.

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Rates on the most popular types of mortgages barely moved, according to HSH.com’s Weekly Mortgage Rates Radar. The average rate for conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose by one basis point (0.01 percent) to 3.74 percent, a new 2013 high. Conforming 5/1 Hybrid ARM rates decreased by four basis points, closing the Wednesday-to-Tuesday wraparound weekly survey at average 2.68 percent.

“Fixed mortgage rates had just a little leftover momentum from last week’s more substantial rise,” said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com. “However, markets became spooked this week over a bank-bailout plan in Cyprus that would have heavily taxed regular bank depositors to help defray the cost of European Central Bank (ECB) financial support to keep them afloat. As has been the case in times of fiscal trouble, money poured into U.S. Treasuries, driving the yields that influence mortgage rates lower over the past few days.”

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Mortgage rates are at historic lows. Refinances are all the rage. We know.

But what if you can’t refinance? What if you don’t want to refinance? What if you already refinanced some time ago and mortgage rates have fallen since then? Even now with mortgage rates starting to trend upward, what can you do to capture a record-low rate, say 3.5 percent?

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The headline of last week’s Mortgage Rates Radar was “Fixed mortgage rates rise but decline expected.”

This week, mortgage rates declined indeed, according to HSH.com’ latest mortgage rates survey, falling to lows not seen since January.

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Below is an excerpt from of our latest Market Trends newsletter, a weekly examination of the economic conditions that influenced mortgage rates. Sign up to receive the Market Trends in your inbox Friday evening.

In what turned out to be a busier-than-expected week for markets, mortgage rates found some space to fall, breaking a climb from record lows set back in December 2012. Read the rest of this entry »