Interest Rates edge down

Interest rates for buying a home on the Palos Verdes Peninsula edged down this week.The following are excerpts from the newsletter on interest rates published by HSH Associates :

“Like standing on a boat in nearly calm seas, watching mortgage rates lately might make you a little queasy, what with the regular cadence of rolling back and forth in single- and multi-week swells. Of late, for example, a 4.45 percent average on October 18 gave way to a 4.27 percent one two weeks later, only to turn back upward to 4.45 two weeks after that.

This week, we’re on the downside of the swell again. That said, fairly calm seas are preferable to the roiling ones we saw earlier this year, when an eight-week wave pushed rates to multi-year highs. Since then, things have calmed appreciably, even if the tide remains considerably higher now than that of the low ebb back in early May.

Next week, a short week is on tap for many people, but even so there is a spate of new reports due out, including Housing Starts, consumer sentiment, leading economic indicators and a few others. Compared to early in the week this week, interest rates firmed up a little though Thursday and Friday, so it’s to be expected that we’ll see rates moving back up a little next week, perhaps taking back 5-6 basis points of this week’s dip. “

The following are interest rate quotes from Al Hermann of American California Financial: