Melissa's Mortgage Minute
The markets focused on the negatives today. No April fooling here!
Manufacturing data disappointed the markets today, construction spending missed estimates, and March auto sales fell to a 2-year low. The explosion in Russia was the icing on the cake!
The Dow closed 13 points after being down more than 100. Oil closed 35 cents the Dollar was slightly stronger and lastly, the 10-year bonds were the winner of the day dropping to 2.32% for a 5 week low as investors moved back to safe-haven investments.
With much of the gain in the latter half of the day mortgage rates didn't make any big moves. 30 Year Fixed rates are still at 4.00% with no points and the best priced 5-year ARM at 3.00% also with no points. The good news is that more lenders are dropping rates to match their better priced competitors every day.
What is most notable is that mortgage rates have been very stable for the past 6 weeks. Each day as I quote rates I feel more and more like a broken record! We have had other periods of stable rates and this is good news for the real estate market. Buyers know where they stand today with no great risk of a big change tomorrow allowing them to digest their options and make the right decisions.