Delaware Mortgage Rates weekly mortgage market update for the Week of October 28, 2013, by John R. Thomas with Primary Residential Mortgage in Newark, Delaware. John Thomas 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 free mortgage planning consultation or APPLY ONLINE for Delaware mortgage loan

Delaware mortgage rates moved to the lowest level in four months after the September Jobs Report released. If you look at the mortgage bond chart below you can see mortgage bonds jumped higher after the jobs report was released and pushed mortgage bonds to 4 months high. We are recommending cautiously FLOATING your Delaware mortgage rate ahead of the Federal Reserve Meeting on Wednesday.

In Economic News, the Labor Department released the September 2013 Jobs Report last week which showed only 148,000 jobs created well below the expected 183,000 jobs. This was good news for mortgage bonds which rallied 50 bps after the release of the report moving Delaware mortgage rates to a 4 month low. The unemployment rate actually dropped to 7.2% which is a 5-year low but the Labor Force Participation Rate remained the same at 63.2% which is a 35 year low. The drop in unemployment was from people that stopped looking for work or took part-time work, not from people going back to work full time.

The Weekly Initial Jobless Claims came out on Thursday at 350,000 claims which were above the expectation of $341,000. This is the second week in a row that claims have been in the mid 300s which has bucked the trend of jobless claims coming in lower and heading below 300k claims. This report shows that we are not seeing any meaningful improvement in the labor market. You can see on the chart below that the 4 week average for claims is now trending up instead of down which is not good news for the labor market.

The S&P 500 Index hit an all-time record high last week at 1,754 on the good corporate earnings report and the continuance of the asset purchase program by the Federal Reserve called Quantitative Easing. The S&P hit an all-time record high of 1,565 on October 9, 2007. At the height of the recession on March 6, 2009, the S&P dropped to a multi-year low of 666. And as the Federal Reserve ushered in the first round of Quantitative Easing (QE) in November of 2008 and then QE 2 and the current 3, the S&P has soared and now rests at new all-time highs. The S&P 500 is widely regarded as the best single gauge of large cap U.S. equities and includes 500 leading companies. This pattern could mean that when the Quantitative Easing stops, we could see the market drop and even crash as it may be artificially high if the economy doesn’t recover enough to support the market without the Federal Reserve pumping money into the economy.

In Housing News, The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced it would delay implementation of lowering the loan limits for conventional loans for at least 6 months. Currently, the maximum loan limit in Delaware for a conventional loan is $417,000. Some states have loan limits as high as $625,000.

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, November 16, 2013, in Newark, 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, November 16, 2013, in Towson, Maryland. Register by calling 410-412-3319 or Register online at http://www.MarylandHomeBuyerSeminars.com

If you would like to apply for a Mortgage Loan, you can APPLY ONLINE HERE, you can call John Thomas at 302-703-0727.

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