Interest Rates hit new 2014 lows

Interest rates for buying a home on the Palos Verdes Peninsula decreased to 2014 lows this week.The following are excerpts from the newsletter on interest rates published by HSH Associates :

“Not that it took much for them to get there, but 30-year fixed mortgage rates managed to again hit 2014 lows; it is the third such touch of the bottom for rates since May. Given the already low and stable pattern for mortgage rates over the past fourteen weeks, this isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, but is is of course welcomed by potential homebuyers and refinancers.

Coupled with an improving job market and a faster pace of economic recovery, the low and stable pattern for mortgage rates appears to be having at least some beneficial effect on home sales. If credit conditions are also actually beginning to ease at the margins, we may just see the housing market gain some additional traction — if not this fall, then next spring, before the Fed is expected to begin the process of lifting short-term interest rates.

With a little more than a week until Labor Day, the unofficial close of summer, there seems to be little on the horizon at the moment to disturb the present flat pattern for mortgage rates. One week, we’ll see a small flare higher for rates, only to see that dissolved over the next week or two. With last minute-vacations for some, and back-to-school for others, this time of year is usually pretty quiet, at least until the pace of life begins to quicken again in the week and weeks after Labor Day. This being the case, mortgage rates aren’t likely to do much for the next week, even as a fresh pile of data will most likely continue to confirm a solidifying economy.

Next week, we’ll look for more clues for the direction of mortgage and other interest rates in the Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index, Confidence and Sentiment indicators, an update on GDP for the second quarter and more. A slight bump higher two weeks ago has now been erased, and then some, but with solid data, it’s probably time for another slight upward move. We’ll call it a 3-4 basis point increase for the week at most. “

The following are interest rate quotes from American California Financial: