July 28, 2016
All eyes were on the Fed on Wednesday, with investors looking for any sign of a Fed move to hike interest rates. Some market watchers thought the Fed might drop a hint or make specific statements about what it might do in the next meeting; the Fed made no such statements.
The reaction to this was mixed, some lenders repriced for the better, but not all. You may see changes in the next business day but as it stands at the time of this writing, things are (best execution) more or less where they were yesterday, with some lenders offering slightly lower rates or closing costs.
30-year fixed rate best execution interest rate numbers are at or near 3.5% at the time of this writing, with FHA mortgage rates still in the FHA comfort zone of 3.25%. It will be interesting to see what happens in the remainder of the week; some market watchers believe floating has a lower degree of risk in light of Wednesday’s events than it did the day prior. However that doesn’t factor in any developments overnight, so it pays to keep a close eye on the news if you are tempted to float.
The mortgage loan rates you see listed here may not be available to all borrowers or from all lenders. Your access to these rates, which are listed as “best execution”, depends greatly on your FICO scores, and other financial qualifications. Your experience may vary.
As always, floating is never risk-free, but it’s likely we could see a bit more improvement tomorrow, given that there are lenders who didn’t reprice for the better following a non-aggressive (towards raising rates) Fed statement and good news from bond markets (which also helped improve rates a bit).
There’s talk among industry professionals at the moment about the range that mortgage loan rates are moving in; for now it’s a small one, but being on the lower end of that range at the moment (especially for FHA rates) is sure to please borrowers who may wish to lock now and cut out any uncertainty over the FHA rate environment going forward through the end of this week and the start of next week.
If you are tempted to float, consider how far out your closing date might be, and decide in advance how high rates might climb before you cut your losses and commit to a mortgage loan interest rate lock with your lender. As mentioned above, floating is never without a degree of risk (we can’t emphasize that enough), but in the very short term than risk may be diminished somewhat. Don’t count on that sticking around for long as there are many variables that can and often do appear that can influence mortgage rates. Those variables include breaking news from home and abroad, which is important to keep in mind. Overnight many things can change.
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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