Mortgage Rates Weekly Update for April 16, 2018

Mortgage Rates Update for April 16, 2018 by John R. Thomas with Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc. in Newark, Delaware. Get advice on Locking or Floating your Mortgage Rate to start the week as well as the latest housing and finance news updates. John Thomas is the Branch Manager, a Delaware Loan Officer and the author of the best selling book, Your Guide to Buying Your First Home in Delaware. Call 302-703-0727 for a Rate Quote or Apply Online for Rate Quote

Mortgage Rates moved higher to end the week as mortgage bonds sold off.  If you look at the mortgage bond chart below you can see mortgage bonds have broken beneath support and fell back into a sideways trading channel they had been in for months.  Bonds ended at the bottom of the channel and have not confirmed support yet.  We are recommending LOCKING your mortgage rate to start the week until mortgage bonds can find a floor of support and rally higher as if break through the trading channel have more room to sell off  and move mortgage interest rates even higher.

In Economic News

The March 2017 Jobs Report was released previous week and showed only 103,000 jobs were created which was much lower than expected of 175,000 jobs.  February’s jobs report was revised higher to 326,000 from 313,000 while January was revised lower to 176,000 from 239,000.  The Unemployment Rate remained the same at 4.1 percent.  The average new jobs created in the first three months of 2018 was 202,000 which is up from the first quarter of 2017 which was only 177,000 jobs created.  Wage growth did tick up from 2.6 percent to 2.7 percent as average hourly earnings came in higher than expected.

Inflation remained tame in March as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for March 2018 fell 0.1 percent which was below the expected gain of 0.1%.  The drop came from lower gas prices as we saw the first decline in 10 months at the pump.  Inflation at the wholesale level was a bit hotter with the Producer Price Index (PPI) for March 2018 rising 0.3 percent.  Even though inflation remained tame in March, the minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting in March showed that the Feds expect inflation to rise this year.  Inflation hurts the value of fixed investments such as Mortgage Bonds which means a rise in inflation can cause Bonds to move lower moving the interest rates higher.

Weekly Initial Jobless Claims dropped 9,000 claims to 233,000 claims for the week which was 3,000 higher than expectations.   Jobless claims remains well below the 300,000 level which represents a threshold of a good labor market versus a bad labor market.  Jobless claims and unemployment remain low and bodes well for the labor market.

In Housing News

CoreLogic Home Price Index reported that home prices rose 6.7 percent from February 2017 to February 2018 and were up 1 percent from January 2018 to February 2018.  CoreLogic is predicting that home prices will rise 4.7 percent from February 2018 to February 2019.  Low inventory remains the number one cause of home prices to keep moving up and with no end in sight to the inventory shortage we would expect home prices to continue to rise.

CoreLogic Loan Performance Insights for January 2018 were released last week and showed that mortgage loans 30 days or more past due decreased from 5.3% to 4.9%.  Seriously delinquent loans which is 90 days or more past due remained stable at 2.1% of mortgage loans.  Lastly seriously delinquent homes in foreclosure remained stable at 0.6% of mortgage loans.

First Time Home Buyer Seminars Coming Up:.

Delaware First Time Home Buyer Seminar is Wednesday April 18, 2018 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Delaware First Time Home Buyer Seminar is Saturday April 21, 2018 in Newark, Delaware.

Register by calling 302-703-0727 or Register online at http://www.DelawareHomeBuyerSeminar.com

DE Mortgage Rates remain near all time record low rates but having been moving higher as of late, so it is the perfect time to purchase or refinance a home before interest rates move even higher. Call 302-703-0727 for a free mortgage consultation with a licensed mortgage loan officer that can review your options with you or APPLY ONLINE

Mortgage Rates Weekly Update

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