After the recent 4-month rally in the Bond markets, which has led to some of the best home loan rates in history, money has started shifting over to the Stock market. Why has this happened? Some economic reports have been better than expected in the past few weeks... such as the Jobs Report for August and Consumer Confidence. While that’s great news, it’s important to remember that good economic news - or as has happened recently, better than expected news - often causes investors to move their money out of the safe haven of Bonds to Stocks in the hopes of taking advantage of any gains.
So why does this behavior impact home loan rates? When the economy appears strong or starts to improve, and investors move their money from the safe haven of Bonds to Stocks, a decreased demand for Bonds means that Bond prices move lower. And when Bond prices move lower, it means that Bond yields - and consequently home loan rates - move higher.
In fact, given the recent better than expected economic news, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard last week shifted away from previous comments he had made about deflation and said that while he sees a slowdown in the economy for the second half of this year, he predicts a pick up in 2011. He also said that the Unemployment Rate will likely fall next year, and business spending should start to rebound.
While continued improvements to our economy are good news, one big impact is that home loan rates will start to increase. And when home loan rates start to increase, they tend to increase quickly. That being said, while home loan rates ended the week about .125-.25 percent worse than where they began, they are still near some of the best levels we have ever seen!
If you or anyone you know would like to learn more about taking advantage of historically low home loan rates while they remain so, please don’t hesitate to call or email me as soon as possible and I will put you in contact with one of our trusted partners, or forward this article on to anyone you think may benefit and I’d be happy to talk to them free of charge.
One of the most important actions we can take this time of year is to remember all those who were injured, lost their lives, or lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. May we never forget those we lost, and may we thank those who work everyday to keep our families safe and protected.
Posts
