[Mortgage Minute] Week of Feb. 8, 2016

Wage Growth is Lone Bright Spot Against a consensus forecast of 190K, the economy added 151K jobs in January. This was down from average gains of about 280K over the prior three months. The unemployment rate declined from 5.0% to 4.9%, the lowest level since February 2008.

[Mortgage Minute] Week of Feb. 1, 2016

Mortgages and Stocks Rally on Japan Rate Cut Friday’s surprise move by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) was positive for global bond markets. The BOJ announced that it was cutting short-term rates to try to boost economic growth and inflation.

[Mortgage Minute] Week of Jan. 11, 2016

Overseas Issues Push Rates Lower Several events caused investors around the world to shift their holdings to safer assets. On Monday, Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran, raising tensions between these two major powers in the Middle East.

[Mortgage Minute] Week of Jan. 4, 2016

Housing and Inflation in the Spotlight as 2016 Begins The last batch of data released on housing activity showed that we are ended 2015 at better levels than in 2014, but below the best levels of the year.

[Mortgage Minute] Week of Dec. 21, 2015

Back to Reality, Fed Finally Pulls Trigger After holding the federal funds rate near zero for seven years, the Fed announced on Wednesday a widely expected rate hike of 25 basis points.

[Mortgage Minute] Week of Dec. 14, 2015

Mortgage Rates Slip on Cheap Oil Mortgage rates are affected by many different market forces. Often it is economic data and its impact on the outlook for inflation.

[Mortgage Minute] Week of Dec. 7, 2015

Looming Fed Decision and Weak ECB Stimulus Push Rates Up The European Central Bank (ECB) announced additional stimulus measures, but the package was smaller than investors had expected.

[Mortgage Minute] Week of Nov. 30, 2015

Friday’s Job Report Could Seal December Rate Hike         After a quiet Thanksgiving week with minimal rate movement, things will heat up with much anticipated jobs report Friday.