Interest Rate Environment Remains Mixed

Interest rates for buying a home on the Palos Verdes Peninsula rise slightly but may be headed back down.The following are excerpts from the newsletter on interest rates published by HSH Associates :

“Just a few days after news of a warming economic climate was sufficient to firm mortgage rates comes renewed concern sufficient to temper that rise and perhaps foster another dip in mortgage rates.

While we are still seeing some market repercussions from the political mess in Ukraine and Crimea, the proximate cause of the dip we expect in rates is more familiar, one we saw a month or so ago; specifically, a report that China’s manufacturing sector has become sluggish. As last time, investors once again expressed their concerns about potential global repercussions of that news by stuffing cash into the relative safety of US Treasuries, driving yields down and pulling mortgage rates back down along with them.

Couple this concerning news with a fairly light calendar of new U.S. economic data, none which suggested serious economic acceleration, and there was little by way of counterbalance to a late-week decline after an early week move higher. Overall, rates still did manage to rise for the week, but only by about half as much as we forecast in last week’s MarketTrends.

Although Rates slipped down later in the week based upon China’s softer pattern of manufacturing growth, if the last episode of this move is any indication, it won’t be enough to keep rates down for long, but good enough to see us take back five or six basis points of this week’s rise. We remain rangebound and will need an accumulation of solid news — perhaps a couple of months worth — for rates to break higher, and we’re likely only get small and temporary downward dips unless some truly severe event should occur. Overall, in the big picture, the pressure for rates remains more upward than downward.”

The following are interest rate quotes from American California Financial: