Last Updated:
May 11, 2010
North Carolina Real Estate
The instability in Greece and the Fed's decision to keep rates low for an extended period of time gave Bonds a boost above a key technical level. But remember, volatility is the name of the game at the moment, and things can change quickly. We'll be watching closely to see in which direction Bonds and home loan rates move this week - and always welcome a call or email from you if we can help answer any questions!
And the big enchilada of employment news wraps up the week, as April's Jobs Report is due for delivery on Friday morning. Last month's report showed that 162,000 jobs were created in March, making it the biggest one-month increase in three years. Additionally, there were upward revisions to January and February, which brought the last two months' net job losses to near zero. But it's not time to break out the party hats just yet...last month's report also showed that the official Unemployment Rate remained steady at 9.7%, and when factoring in the "underemployed", including people who accepted part-time work because full-time work is simply not available, the rate of unemployment overall rose from 16.8% to 16.9%. This report will be very important to watch, as the labor market is key to our economic recovery.
Rate Review
In Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Mkt Survey (for the week ending April 30th) in which the 30-yr fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) avg. 5.06. Last year at this time, the 30-yr FRM avg 4.78%.
The 15-year FRM this week avg 4.39%. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM avg 4.48%.
The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) avg 4.00%. A year ago, the 5-year ARM avg 4.80%.
The one-year Treasury-indexed ARM avg 4.25%. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM avg 4.77%.