Tag Archives: Mortgage Rates

As major lenders start releasing their second-quarter earnings reports, Fitch Ratings anticipates future filings will show the impact of higher interest rates on banks' mortgage earnings.

While summer temperatures are now consistently rising into the triple digits in many parts of the country, bidding wars for homes continue to cool, Redfin said in its Real-Time Bidding Wars report for June. Nationally, the percentage of offers written by Redfin agents that faced multiple bids fell for the third straight month to 68.6 percent, down from 69.5 percent in May and 75.7 percent in March. Redfin analyst Ellen Haberle attributed the continued decline to rising mortgage interest rates and an easing in the inventory crunch.

Mortgage rates continued to trend higher last week following last week's release of the June employment report.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported another weekly drop in applications to start July.

In a commentary released Tuesday, analysts at FBR Capital Markets pointed to market trends and recent events as evidence that origination volumes should remain elevated.

Responses to Fannie Mae's latest National Housing Survey indicate potential homebuyers may enter the purchase market sooner rather than later.

The newest Price Monitor report from Trulia shows asking prices are heating up along with the weather. The company reported a 10.7 percent year-over-year increase and a 1.5 percent month-over-month improvement. Trulia also tracked the 100 largest metro areas and revealed 99 markets experienced an increase in asking prices over the last year. According to Trulia's chief economist Jed Kolko, the increase in home prices and mortgage rates has added a significant cost to homeownership.

Homebuyer interest diminished somewhat in June, according to Redfin's Real-Time Demand Pulse. According to the brokerage, the number of customers taking tours fell 1.9 percent month-over-month in June, sinking even further than the 1.5 percent drop recorded last year. For the last week of the month, Redfin reported a 2.7 percent decline in tour requests from the prior week (compared to a 2.3 percent decline the same week in 2012). With closed sales typically peaking each year in June, Redfin expects continued monthly declines.

According to data taken from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and compiled by Capital Economics, total application volume plummeted 22.5 percent in June.

Interest rates declined 0.15 percent in May, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).