TODAY’S INTEREST RATES
Mortgage rates had some nice improvement last week until Friday’s Jobs Report.
After that, the gains were taken back and interest rates are about .1% higher today than last week.
See green trend up and then red trend down on right of chart.
Per the Jobs report, 236,000 jobs were created in March and estimates were 240,000.
Unemployment fell from 3.6% to 3.5%.
MBS Highway pointed out an interesting figure with average hours worked for Americans.
Average hours worked went down .1 to 34.4 hours.
While this figure looks insignificant, it’s quite significant when you look at 161 million workers in the U.S.
This .1 hour less worked is like losing 468,000 full time jobs.
On Wednesday, the Consumer Price Index will be released which measures inflation.
We expect a volatile market.
MBS highway expects inflation to drop from 6% to 5.2%, but core inflation (taking out food and energy costs) to go up 5.5% to 5.6%.
HOME PRICES MOVING BACK UP
Per the Zillow Home Value Index, home prices rose .9% in March 2023.
Home prices are still up 3% year over year, but down 3% from their peak in June of 2022.
A bunch of other indexes also showed positive signs in home values.
FHFA reported home values up .2% in January.
Black Knight up .2% in February.
CoreLogic up .8% in February.
MBS Highway’s April 2023 survey is also showing increased buyer activity and upward home pricing pressure.
Inventory is still low across the country. If buyer demand increase, prices will rise.
See breakdown by region below:
KCM’S APRIL MARKET UPDATE
Keeping Current Matters April 2023 Market Update was just released.
Here is the audio:
Below are my favorite slides from the report.
