Mortgage Commentary on Massachusetts Mortgage Rate Trends
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Thursday’s bond market has opened up slightly with a mixed open in stocks and no significant surprises in today’s minor economic data. The Dow is currently down 44 points while the Nasdaq is up 4 points. The bond market is currently up 5/32, but due to weakness late yesterday we will probably see little change in this morning’s Massachusetts mortgage rates.
The Labor Department said early this morning that 372,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week. This was just a bit lower than expected, but the minor difference and an upward revision to the previous week’s claims means this data was a non-factor in today’s bond trading and Massachusetts mortgage rates.
This morning’s other piece of news was payroll processor ADP’s monthly update on private sector employment. They announced an increase of 325,000 new jobs, well above what analysts were expecting and the largest monthly gain in a year. Still, the markets and Massachusetts mortgage rates do not seem to be too concerned or excited about the news, apparently looking towards tomorrow’s major release for a bigger snapshot on the employment sector.
Tomorrow brings us the almighty monthly Employment report from the Labor Department. The Employment report is arguably the most important monthly release we see. It gives us the national unemployment rate, the number of jobs added or lost during the month and average hourly earnings, which is a key measure of wage inflation. Rising unemployment, a decline in payrolls and earnings would be ideal news for the bond market and Massachusetts mortgage rates.
Current forecasts show that the unemployment rate rose from 8.6% in November to 8.7% last month, 150,000 new jobs added to the economy and average earnings rose 0.2%. If we see weaker than expected results, Massachusetts rates should improve noticeably tomorrow. However, stronger than expected readings will likely raise optimism about the economy, pushing Massachusetts mortgage rates sharply higher.
Lock or Float Advice based on Massachusetts Mortgage Rate Trends
If I were considering purchasing or refinancing a home and predicting likely Massachusetts mortgage rates, I would…
Lock if my closing was taking place within 7 days…
Float if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days…
Float if my closing was taking place between 21 and 60 days…
Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from now…
This is only a general opinion of what I would do if I were considering whether to lock or float based on Massachusetts mortgage rate trends. Your individual situation may be different.
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