New Year, Same Trend: Mortgage Rates Down Again This Week
Mortgage rates slumped lower this week, beginning the year at their lowest levels in more than four months.
Market Trends
Rising Mortgage Rates Thorn in Otherwise Rosy Conditions for Home Buyers
Would-be buyers are still feeling the pinch, as rising mortgage rates slice budgets and eliminate the share of affordable homes.
For the time being, this slowdown represents a return to fundamentals more than anything else, and to more balance between buyers and sellers.
Low housing inventory, a major contributor to a runup in home prices in recent years, has risen for three consecutive months – but it is climbing at a slow rate, more akin to bumping along the bottom than growing in any meaningful way.
Mortgage Rates Fed Up With Flatness, Fall for the Week
After staying flat for much of the past week, mortgage rates dropped sharply in recent days to their lowest levels since August.
November Existing Home Sales: Signs of Life
November existing home sales rose 1.9 percent from October to 5.32 million sales, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Forecast for Existing and New Home Sales (November 2018)
While existing home sales have suffered from supply side constraints for the past three years, new home sales are facing more recent headwinds.
Atlanta, Phoenix Home Buyers Have Smaller Down Payments
Nationally, 24.2 percent of buyers put down 5 percent or less. The share is much higher in Atlanta, where a whopping 44.5 percent of buyers put down 5 percent or less, and Phoenix, where 36.9 percent do.
Mortgage Rates Level Off After Two Week Decline
Mortgage rates held flat this week, kept in check by offsetting forces from abroad, breaking a two-week-long slide that saw rates hit their lowest levels since September.
Lumber Prices Plummet to Lowest Levels Since January 2017
Lumber prices retreated sharply from mid-year highs and dipped to lowest levels since January 2017, the eve of the U.S.-Canada trade war that sparked the lumber price surge.
