May 2, 2016
Mortgage loan interest rates had started moving higher in the last ten business days–seven out of then had rates either creeping higher or holding steady after doing so. But in the last three business days, we’ve watched rates begin to move back downward, pushing 30-year fixed rate conventional mortgages back into a range of rates.
Professional market watchers report that conventional rates have a higher degree of variation lately due to market volatility, but in general 30-year fixed rate conventional mortgages are at a best-execution range between 3.625% and 3.75%. FHA mortgage rates are still in a range between 3.25% and 3.5% best execution.
Best execution rates aren’t available to all borrowers or from all lenders–your experience may vary depending on FICO scores, loan repayment history and other financial qualifications. Your access to these rates depends greatly on those qualifications and in some cases the availability of a participating lender offering such rates.
The big planned economic data release for this week is the Employment Situation Report, which has a great deal of potential to affect rates depending on the contents of that report and how investors react to it. There are some other economic data releases coming this week–the Monday there’s a national manufacturing index and a “services report” on Wednesday, but Friday is the day the employment report comes out. We could see some ups and downs before then, but floating into this report means accepting an elevated degree of risk.
There’s never a time when floating-holding off on n mortgage loan interest rate lock commitment with your lender-is risk free, but floating ahead of important data releases like the one scheduled for Friday can be riskier. It’s important to set your strategy in advance–how high will rates climb before a borrower decides to cut the losses and lock with the lender? Only the borrower can decide this, it’s important to evaluate how much risk you’re willing to take before making the commitment.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It is designed especially for real estate websites; a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those sites. It is simple to spend a few seconds customizing the state, counties, and widget size for the tool; you can copy the code and paste it into your website with ease. Get yours today:
http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_limits_widget
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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