Mortgage interest rates for buying a home on the Palos Verdes Peninsula remained steady near record lows this week for conforming loans but remain higher to jumbo loans . The following are excerpts from the newsletter on interest rates published by HSH Associates:
“Like the economy, mortgage rates seem to have flattened out of late, holding at levels just below the 3 percent mark for the last 6 weeks (and 7 of the last 8). Despite this, demand for new mortgage credit has also flagged, and the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that overall applications for new mortgages declined by 2% in the week ending August 28. Applications for purchase-money mortgages eased by just 0.2% for the week, the first weekly dip in a month, but those for refinancing are now in a three-week skid, with declines of 5.3% and 10.2% over the past two weeks now joined by a 3.1% decline in the latest available week. It may be that the spring homebuying season that was bumped to summer this year may be leveling off somewhat, and it is usually true that when mortgage rates hover around a given level for a number of weeks that the pool of potential refinancers at a given rate level dries up the longer rates hold fairly steady. It may take another leg down in rates to give refi activity a real kick start, but there will probably be an increase in refinancing as folks return from the usual end-of-summer vacations and school preparation distractions, such as they are this year.
Odds don’t favor much if any move in mortgage rates for next week, perhaps a wobble of perhaps a basis point or two (probably upward) in the average rate for a conforming 30-year FRM as reported by Freddie Mac next Thursday morning. Historically, the first full week of September (7-11 this year) sees markets become more restive, but history may not be of much use as a guide this year, admittedly.”
The following are interest quotes from Rick Ellis of Citibank:
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ARM rate may increase after consummation
