Mortgage Rates Weekly Update [September 24 2018]

John Thomas September 24, 2018 Tags: Delaware Mortgage Rates, mortgage rates

Mortgage Rates Weekly Update for September 24, 2018

Mortgage Rates Update for September 24, 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 continued to move higher last week as mortgage bonds sold off as the stock market rallied higher . If you look at the Fannie Mae 4.0% mortgage bond chart below you can see mortgage bonds are in a downward trend that started at the end of August shown with the black arrow. Mortgage bonds were able to find a floor of support on Wednesday and held Thursday and Friday at that floor of support so we are recommending FLOATING your mortgage rate to start the week to see if mortgage bonds can rally higher off this floor of support.

In Economic News

The US Stock market has shrugged off the tariffs being imposed by the Trump administration and moved to all time record highs again. Monday September 24th, 10% tariffs go into effect on $200 Billion of Chinese goods. President Trump said that if the China retaliates then the US will impose tariffs on an additional $267 Billion of Chinese goods.

Weekly Initial Jobless Claims were released on Thursday and came out at 201,000 claims for the week. This was a drop of 3,000 claims from the previous week and is the lowest figure in 49 years. This is also the “sample week” that will be used in the September jobs report which will be released on October 5th. Labor market continues to be extremely tight and we are starting to see wage pressured inflation move higher.

The Week Ahead in Mortgage Rates

For the Week of September 24, 2018 thru September 28, 2018

Consumer Confidence Report on Tuesday

S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index on Tuesday

New Home Sales on Wednesday

Pending Home Sales on Thursday

Weekly Initial Jobless Claims on Thursday

In Housing News

Existing Home Sales for August 2018 were unchanged from July at 5.34 Million units sold on an annualized basis. This was somewhat lower than expectations of a 0.4% gain from July. Existing home sales are down 1.5% year over year from August 2017. Inventory continues to remain tight but is up slightly at 2.7% year over year to 1.92 million homes currently for sale. This is the first annual increase in over 3 years. This represents a 4.3 month supply of homes for sale with homes staying on the market for an average of 29 days. The median home price of an existing home sold was $264,800 which was up 4.6% year over year.

Housing Starts for August 2018 rose 9% to 1.282 million units on annualized basis. Building Permits for August 2017 on the other hand fell 5.7% from July and are down 5.5% year over year. Building permits is a sign of future construction so this shows a slow down in new home construction which may be attributed to the tariffs imposed. Of the nearly 6,000 products listed in the latest tariffs from the Trump administration, the NAHB found that about 600 products were either connected to home construction or to tools used to build apartments or homes.

First Time Home Buyer Seminars Coming Up:

Delaware Home Buyer Seminars:

Delaware First Time Home Buyer Seminar is Wednesday September 26, 2018 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Delaware First Time Home Buyer Seminar is Saturday September 29, 2018 in Dover, Delaware.

Delaware First Time Home Buyer Seminar is Saturday October 20, 2018 in Newark, Delaware.

Maryland Home Buyer Seminars:

Maryland First Time Home Buyer Seminar is Saturday October 27, 2018 in Hyattsville, Maryland

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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