Delaware Mortgage Rates weekly market update for the week of August 19, 2013, by John R. Thomas with Primary Residential Mortgage in Newark, Delaware. John is the Newark, Delaware Mortgage Branch Manager and the author of the book, Your Guide to Buying Your First Home in Delaware. Call 302-703-0727 to get a mortgage planning consultation or APPLY ONLINE for Delaware mortgage loan

Delaware mortgage rates jumped higher to end the week last week after a slew of positive economic reports. If you look at the mortgage bond chart below you can see mortgage bonds dropped lower every day and sold off on Friday to end the week so mortgage rates moved higher all week. Monday started the sell-off in bonds when the bond couldn’t close above the falling blue trend line. The same pattern repeated itself again last week which was bonds hitting the falling blue trend line and then being turned lower in a big sell-off.  Bonds appear to have hit a bottom so we are going to recommend FLOATING your Delaware mortgage rate to see if the bond market can bounce higher but be on guard if selling continues bond could move significantly lower and mortgage rates could continue to move higher.

In Economic News, The Labor Department released the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims on Thursday and they fell by 15k to 320,000 claims. This was good news for the labor market as jobless claims haven’t been this low since October 2007. Expectations were for 339,000 claims so this number was much better and was a big factor in the sell-off in mortgage bonds on Thursday and Friday as good economic news may lead the Federal Reserve to start tapering its bond-buying program in September 2013 versus waiting till 2014 to start tapering. We also saw the release of the Retail Sales Report for July 2013 which showed a fourth straight month of retail sales growth of 0.2%. If you strip out auto sales from the report then it rose by 0.5%. This is another report that was economically favorable so was not bond friendly.

In Economic News, two measures of inflation were released last week which showed inflation remains very tame. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in at only a 0.2% inflation for July 2013 and was at 2% year over year. The Core CPI came in at 0.2% inflation for July 2013 and was 1.7% year over year.

In Housing News, Housing Starts rose by 5.9% from June 2013 to July 2013 to 896,000 units. Building Permits were up 2.7% for July 2013 to 943,000 which was above the expected 934,000 after falling 6.7% in June 2013. The National Association of Home Builders Housing Market Index Rose to 59 in August 2013 up from 57 in July 2013 which was the best level in nearly eight years. So again housing is on a strong recovery even though home loan interest rates have moved higher.

Call 302-703-0727 to schedule a mortgage consultation to get pre-approved for a mortgage to purchase a home or to refinance your existing mortgage to lower your rate and save thousands of dollars in interest. There are several special governments refinance programs to help underwater Delaware homeowners refinance. There is the FHA Streamline Refinance Program, the VA IRRRL Streamline Refinance Program, and there is the HARP 1.0 and HARP 2.0 refinance programs. Call us or e-mail us now to get more information or you can APPLY ONLINE.

The next Delaware First Time Home Buyer Seminar is Saturday, September 14, 2013, in Newark, Delaware and First Time Home Buyer Seminar on Saturday, August 24, 2013, in Dover, Delaware. Register by calling 302-703-0727 or Register online at http://www.delawarehomebuyerseminar.com/

Then next Maryland First Time Home Buyer Seminar is Saturday September 14, 2013, in Towson, Maryland. Register by calling 410-412-3319 or Register online at http://www.MarylandHomeBuyerSeminars.com

John R. Thomas – NMLS 38783

Certified Mortgage Planner – Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc.

302-703-0727 DE Office / 610-906-3109 PA Office / 410-412-3319 MD Office

248 E Chestnut Hill Rd, Newark, DE 19713