Mortgage Rates weekly market update for the Week of March 30, 2015, by John R. Thomas with Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc. in Newark, Delaware. John Thomas is the Branch Manager, a 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 last week after a sell-off in the stock and bond markets on Wednesday and again on Thursday.  If you look at the mortgage bond chart below you can see the trend had been for mortgage bonds to move higher and interest rates to move lower but the trend was reversed on Wednesday as bonds sold off into Friday causing mortgage interest rates to move higher.

In Economic News, the final reading for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2014 came in at 2.2% which was well below the 5% GDP for the 3rd quarter of 2014.  The overall GDP for all of 2014 came in at a very disappointing 2.42%.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February 2015 was up 0.2% which was in line with estimates but a big reversal from January’s -0.7%.  This was the first positive reading on inflation after three negative months.  The higher reading on inflation was led higher by a rise in the price of gasoline and the rise in the price of food & shelter.

The Weekly Initial Jobless Claims were reported on Thursday at 282,000 claims for the week.  This was a drop of 9,000 claims from the previous week and the third-week claims have remained below the 300k level.

In Housing News, New Home Sales for February 2015 were up a whopping 8% from January to 539,000 units.  This report was better than expected and the strongest reading in almost 8 years!  The median home price of a new home sale was up 4% to $275,500.

Existing Home Sales for February 2015 were released by NAR last week on Monday and rose by 1.2% from January to 4.88 Million units on an annualized basis and sales were up 4.7% on a year over year basis.  This was slightly below expectations of 4.9 Million Units.  The Median Home Price of Existing Home Sale was reported at $202,600 which was up 7.5% from a year ago.  This report was a very positive report on housing but the media tried to spin this as a negative report.

USDA Rural Housing Loan Underwriting Turn Times at Rural Development for files in Delaware as of 3/27/2015 they are working on reviewing files that have been submitted on 3/17/2015 so they are taking about 10 Business days to review files currently so plan your closing dates accordingly.

First Time Home Buyer Seminars Coming Up:

The next Delaware First Time Home Buyer Seminar is Saturday, April 18, 2015, in Newark, Delaware.

The next Dover Delaware Home Buyer Seminar is Saturday, April 25, 2015, in Dover, Delaware

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