Current Mortgage Rates Hold Higher to Start the Week

It’s another week and mortgage rates are holding steady at the levels they moved up to on Friday. It’s a moderate economic calendar this week with some reports in the latter half that could cause rates to adjust. Read on for more details.

Where are mortgage rates going?                                              

Mortgage rates hold higher after strong jobs report

Here we go with yet another week. It’s a slow start for the markets as there’s little significant economic data scheduled for release; however, Friday’s events are still looming large.

Of course, I’m talking about the monthly jobs report for August, which showed that a very solid 201,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy for that month. More importantly, average hourly earnings ticked up 0.4%, bringing the yearly growth rate to 2.9%–the highest rate since 2009.

The consensus was for an increase of 0.2%, so the strong uptick caught investors by surprise.

The good news caused financial market participants to increase their appetite for risk and move out of bonds and into stocks, pushing long-term treasury yields higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note (the best market indicator of where mortgage rates are going) ticked up about seven basis points to 2.94%.

Mortgage rates typically move in the same direction as the 10-year yield and similarly edged higher as we headed into the weekend. Today, mortgage rates are staying close to those levels as there’s little happening in the markets to make them adjust in either direction.

Rate/Float Recommendation                                    

Lock now before rates move even higher         

Strong economic data pushed mortgage rates up higher on Friday. We’re expecting rates to continue to shift higher as the Federal Reserve gets ready to increase the nation’s benchmark interest rate later this month.

If you’re planning on buying a home or refinancing your current mortgage, we strongly recommend that you do so sooner rather than later. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that you’ll be locking in a higher interest rate and paying more over the life of your loan.

Learn what you can do to get the best interest rate possible.  

Today’s economic data:               

Fedspeak 

• Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic at 11:30am

Notable events this week:       

Monday:   

Tuesday:   

• NFIB Small Business Optimism Index
• JOLTS

Wednesday:         

• PPI-FD
• EIA Petroleum Status Report
• 10-Yr Note Auction
• Beige Book

Thursday:     

• CPI
• Jobless Claims
• Fedspeak

Friday:          

• Retail Sales
• Import and Export Prices
• Fedspeak
• Industrial Production
• Consumer Sentiment

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