Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - Article by: James Brooks -
By James Brooks
The bond market is unchanged (2.16%), which should keep Raleigh area mortgage rates unchanged.
The National Association of Realtors gave us May's Existing Home Sales report at 10:00 AM ET this morning. It showed a 1.1% rise in home resales last month when analysts were expecting to see a decline. This means that the housing sector was stronger than many had thought, making the data bad news for bonds and mortgage rates.
The first of tomorrow's two relevant economic releases will be last week's unemployment figures at 8:30 AM ET. They are expected to show that 240,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week, up from the previous week's 237,000 initial claims. Since rising claims hints at employment sector weakness, the higher the number the better the news it is for mortgage rates. However, because this is only a weekly report, it likely will have little impact on tomorrow's mortgage rates unless it shows a significant variance.
May's Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) will also be posted tomorrow, but at 10:00 AM ET. The Conference Board, who is a New York-based business research group, produces this report. The LEI attempts to predict economic activity over the next three to six months. Good news for mortgage rates would be a decline in this index, but it is expected to show a 0.3% increase from April's reading. This means it is predicting a minor increase in economic growth over the next several months. Since this report is not considered to be of high importance, I don't see it causing too much movement in rates regardless if it shows a particularly strong or weak reading.
If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would.... Lock if my closing was taking place within 7 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 21 and 60 days... Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from now.
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