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First Team’s Weekly Mortgage Watch (July 13th, 2014) this week highlights the following updates:
- Last week was mostly devoid of significant economic data for markets to digest, and international pressures were very minimal on US markets. Weekly surveys revealed a tiny increase in mortgage rates, but for most mortgage buyers, rates were unchanged for the week.
- The Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes were released, last week, and they contained some interesting future insights for the mortgage market. Rather than terminate QE3 at the end of December, as most analysts expected, the Fed appears poised to terminate it in October.
- However, as QE3 has been tapered in $10 billion increments, the final taper would be either $15 or $5 billion. Fed policymakers said that they regard the choice as a "technical issue with no substantive macroeconomic consequences."
- This week gets busy again with multiple, important economic-data reports due, including Retail Sales and Industrial Production. With discussion beginning as to when, next year, the Fed will increase rates, every bit of positive economic news increases the possibility of rates finally moving upward.
- With the housing market getting closer to “normal,” it has become difficult in some places to tell whether it’s a seller’s or a buyer’s market. In many markets, it is really a matter of opinion.
- A recent report from Redfin found that real estate agents are finding their clients more and more out of sync with the state of the market. For example, 40% of sellers planned to price their home well over market value, while more buyers are refusing to bid on homes with other bids.
Originally posted at: http://www.firstteam.com/blog/?p=8906
