What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : February 22, 2010

Comments(0) By Mike Miller •February 22nd, 2010

New Home Sales Dec 2008-Dec 2009 Mortgage markets had a terrible, holiday-shortened week last week as Wall Street responded to worse-than-expected inflation data and action from the Federal Reserve. Mortgage bonds sold off with force, causing mortgage rates to rise for the second week in a row.

Last week was a bad week to float a mortgage, to say the least. Rates in Danville rose by the largest margin in any week since late-2009.

The two biggest stories from last week both came from the Federal Reserve. The first was the release of the FOMC January meeting minutes which showed more confidence in the U.S. economy than Wall Street expected, and the second was the Fed’s surprise announcement to raise the nation’s Discount Rate to 0.75%. Both sparked risk-taking on Wall Street and bonds sold-off as a result.

Now, the Fed Funds Rate won’t climb anytime soon and neither will Prime Rate, but the Fed has sent a clear message to the markets — The Era of Loose Monetary Policy is over.

This week, there’s a lot of economic data set for release.

Tuesday : Case-Shiller Home Price Index, Consumer Confidence
Wednesday : New Home Sales
Thursday : FHFA Home Price Index, Initial Jobless Claims
Friday : Existing Home Sales, Personal Consumption Expenditures

With markets already on edge, any better-than-expected results should be bad for mortgage rates.

After last week’s performance, conforming mortgage rates for residents of California have now unwound most their January gains. If you’re waiting for the right time to lock, it may have been 2 weeks ago. Consider locking in this week to protect against any further deterioration in price.

Filed Under: Weekly Review