Mortgage and Real estate blog

Long-term rates are holding lows nicely, the 10-year T-note near 3.20%, and lowest-fee mortgages just under 5.00%.     New data tilts to slowdown. The Philly Fed index surprised on the downside, half its forecast; new unemployment claims rose (might be BPs gift to the Gulf); single-family housing...

Today's payroll flop -- only 20,000 real jobs created in May -- will take some time to settle all the way in. Immediately: 10-year T-notes are 3.22% (from 3.36% yesterday and 3.99% six weeks ago), and mortgages below 5.00%.The payroll report has confirmation: new unemployment has held high for fi...

Long-term rates have stayed down despite a good run of economic data, Europe still the driver in all markets. The flight has pushed the 10-year T-note back down to 3.42%, but it is limited to Treasurys; mortgages are relatively steady near 5.00%.     The news here is distinctly better, but the im...

Explosions What is striking me between the eyes as we dive into yet another week of potential financial surprises is that, somewhere in the recent past, I assured my readers (or reader, as the case may be) that further declines for interest rates did not seem at all likely. Nice guess, Bozo. The ...

Hurdles The $8,000 and $6,500 homebuyer tax credits went out-to use poet T.S. Elliot's phrase-not with a bang but with a whimper. The applications index for purchase money mortgages managed to climb to 257, thankfully, but if you look at the history of this Mortgage Bankers Association index, you...

Long-term rates -- the ones guaranteed to rise -- fell again. The 10-year T-note made it briefly to 3.73%, and to 5.00% before rising a bit yesterday.     The action was largely due to Greek default, the possibility of a failed bailout (see Fannie and Freddie and "Paulson's Bazooka", the dud in s...

Mortgage and long-term Treasury rates are falling suddenly today, as the SEC's fraud charge against Goldman Sachs is tanking the stock market. The 10-year T-note has broken below recent 3.80% resistance to 3.77%, mortgages headed toward 5.00%.     Interpreting new economic data is trickier than ...

Just when everyone was certain that long term rates would rise, they fell. Wednesday's 10-year T-note auction drew more bidders than any since '94, and its yield thumped down from near 4.00% to 3.85%, mortgages back down to 5.125%. The improvement is gradually reversing, but for the moment we're ...

A pleasant surprise in March hiring has pushed up all long-term rates: 10-year Treasurys to 3.94%, and mortgages to 5.25%.      Even better news than the jobs: rates could have gone a great deal higher. Other new data this week were as positive as employment: the ISM survey of manufacturing in Ma...

In an odd leap, long-term Treasury yields blew up, Wednesday the worst single day in nine months. The 10-year T-note stopped at 3.88%, a level touched for the fifth time since last June, but the violence of this move threatens upward breakout. Meanwhile, mortgages held fairly well, inside the 5.2...