Interest Rates near historic lows

Interest rates for buying a home on the Palos Verdes Peninsula moved down this week to interest rate lows last seen in May 2013.The following are excerpts from the newsletter on interest rates published by HSH Associates :

“The world’s economic and political troubles continue to provide a tempering influence on mortgage rates, helping them to fall a fair bit over the last few weeks. Pushing them the other way for the most part has an accumulation of signals of a strengthening U.S. economy in much of the fourth quarter, but of late it would appear that there has been a bit of deceleration as that period came to a close. Although rates are already pretty low, with fixed rates within shouting distance of 60-year lows, there may yet be some space for them to fall a bit more, or at least hold these levels for a while.

With equity markets hitting a rather a sour note this week, the pressure on interest rates is again downward. The 10-year Treasury shed about 20 basis points this week, but not all of that will translate into mortgage rates — differing risk profiles and more keep Treasuries and MBS from working in absolute lockstep — but the influence is there, regardless. Seems likely that we’ll see a 5-8 basis point dip next week, perhaps more if the fresh economic data suggests more slowing is happening.”

The following are interest rate quotes from American California Financial: