After hitting long term highs last week, we’ve seen a little rate improvement this week. Mortgage interest rates are staying in a relatively narrow range.
I still expect to see rates rise in November with a likely FED tapering of bond purchases. See below interest rates for well qualified borrowers.
Great news from FHFA this week. The agency announced that in 2022 , Desktop appraisals will become permanent.
A Desktop appraisal is when an appraiser completes an appraisal with public records Instead of visiting the home. The agency temporarily allowed this for a period in March 2020 to help the appraisal process when Covid became a major national issue.
This is fantastic news especially in more rural areas. Rural areas have less appraisers, which makes turn times extremely long. A desktop appraisal will limit the amount of driving and allow appraisers to do more appraisals – thus helping speed up the mortgage process.
I’m very excited about this development for consumers and lenders.
Rates trended higher again this past week despite lower than projected job creation. The August report was interesting as job creation was over 200k lower than projections, but Multiple other parts of the report were improved.
Employment rate went down .4% Wages increased Work week hours increased
It appears that employers want more employees but many people don’t want to go back to work.
The Mortgage Backed Security chart below showing mostly negative or red recently correlates to higher interest rate pricing.
In the FED Minutes released today, the Federal Reserve Board said it could begin gradual tapering process in November.
The FED detailed that the process could begin by cutting 10 billion a month in Treasury purchases And 5 billion a month in Mortgage Backed Securities.
I expect rates to continue to slowly rise as this happens.
See below interest rates for well qualified borrowers.
Rates stabilized in the past week after going up .125% to .25% the week prior.
The US Non Farm Jobs Report is released for September. Expectations are for about 475,000 jobs created and the unemployment rate to drop from 5.2% to 5.1%.
If the job creation meets expectations, it’s highly likely the FED announces a Bond Taper at their next meeting.
Inflation is high and with the economy showing signs of continuous improvement, the thought is that tapering would need to follow.
With Mortgage Applications at 3 month lows, I would encourage urgency to get under contract and a rate locked in before a FED taper likely raises rates.