Mortgage Market Update

Well, it’s Thursday afternoon and time to take a look at what’s going on in the markets today.   Here’s an overview:

• Some earnings reports have come in better than expected.   Ford actually made money.
• Unemployment claims came in mixed – continued claims were down, but new claims were up.
• Existing Home Sales came in with a sign that we might be heading in the right direction.
• The government announced that they are going to be buying a bunch more Treasury bonds and mortgage backed securities in the next few weeks.  This is raising concern that the bond market is going to be inundated with additional supply, more than they can handle.
• Some of the regulatory and health care changes that the administration is proposing appear to be running into obstacles.   

Those issues are combining to put some upward pressure on mortgage rates.    My recommendation remains to lock all loans.   The upside risk caused by the relatively good economic news and the increased government borrowings is going to make it more likely that rates will go up than it will that they’ll go down.