Recapping The Week Regarding Economic & Housing Data
Knoxville, TN (PRWEB) December 27, 2013 -- While mortgage rates climbed to the misfortune of prospective home buyers, Peoples Home Equity thinks it was a constructive week. Multiple economics data reports such as Michigan sentiment, housing price index, initial jobless claims and more pointed to a growing economy and housing market. If the economy continues to improve as reflected in the Federal Reserve’s tapering of its quantitative easing program, then now is the time to apply and get approved for a home loan.
The week started off on Monday, December 23rd, with a very positive consumer sentiment report from the University of Michigan. Consumer sentiment grew 9.8% from November to December. On the same day the market learned that the personal spending had also increased to its 18th highest level in the past 24 weeks.
On Tuesday, December 24th, the market learned that the home price index released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency increased another 0.5% from September to October. The only declining news that Peoples Home Equity saw was regarding new homes sales which declined a measly 2.1%. The lender thought this decline was somewhat irrelevant since it was the second highest new home sales figure ever to be reported in the past 5 years!
Last, on Thursday, December 26th, the market learned that initial jobless claims dropped a satisfying 11%. This news was welcomed by Peoples Home Equity as the lender has been expecting initial jobless claims to resume their downtrend over the past 2 weeks.
Given all the positive economic data released, 30 year fixed mortgage rates increased from 4.60% on Monday, December 23rd, to 4.65% on Friday December 27th, as shown on MortgageNewsdaily.com. Peoples Home Equity expects mortgage rates to continue even higher as long as initial jobless claims can remain close to 300k to give unemployment a chance to trend even lower. The Federal Reserve is already expecting the U.S. economy to improve since it has cut the amount of asset repurchases it will make in the bond markets. Peoples Home Equity thinks prospective home buyers should reflect on the news announced this week and conclude that as long as the economy improves, which it’s expect to do, mortgage rates will rise. Thus, now is the time to obtain a fixed rate purchase loan before the making the payments for a home becomes too expensive!
Peoples Home Equity hopes everyone is enjoying the holiday season. Should one need assistance with applying for a mortgage this winter feel free to contact a PHE loan officer at: (855)-897-0300
Ornis Mala, Peoples Home Equity, http://www.peopleshomeequity.com, +1 8473386062, [email protected]
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