Mortgage Panic As Rates Rise: Inflation Scare Or The Real Deal?

Since the election 10-year treasury rates are up 0.405 percentage points. Since October 1, rates are up 0.665 percentage points.

Because mortgage rates closely follow 10-year treasury rates, there is panic in the mortgage market, especially from buyers who have not yet locked in rates.

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Trump Win Juices Mortgage Rates

The Wall Street Journal reports Trump Win Juices Mortgage Rates.

Mortgage rates have spiked in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory.

Average rates on 30-year fixed conforming mortgages hit 3.87% on Thursday, climbing a quarter of a percentage point since Tuesday’s market close, according to MortgageNewsDaily.com, which tracks mortgage rates. That is the biggest increase in a two-day period since June 2013 when the Federal Reserve announced its plan to start easing its stimulus program, according to the site.

Mortgage Mortgage Rates Skyrocket to 4%

The WSJ numbers are from last Thursday. Rates spiked again on Monday.

Mortgage news Daily says Mortgage Rates Skyrocket to 4%. New Normal?.

It’s been a long time since anyone could say that top tier conventional conforming 30yr fixed mortgage rates were at 4%. Indeed, even last Monday, the thought of 4% rates would border on preposterous. But what a difference a week makes! Over the past 3 days, rates have moved higher at a pace that’s only matched by the worst 3 consecutive days of the mid 2013 taper tantrum. There were several days in 1987 were rates moved higher more quickly on an outright basis, but the more recent spikes have constituted much larger proportions of respective ranges. In both cases (1987 and 2013), the recent major highs in rates occurred 6 years early. Simply put, the 2013 rate spike traversed more of its 6-year range than the 1987 spike, and the past 3 days have matched 2013’s pace.

Granted, by the time we look at the weeks and months that preceded the 2 most recent rate spikes, 2013 remains a bigger overall move toward higher rates. But that same caveat is the reason the current rate spike is as scary as it is: we don’t yet know what the coming weeks and months will look like! As recently as last Thursday, quite a few market participants figured that rates had gotten so much higher so quickly, that it surely must have been a knee-jerk reaction to the presidential election that would soon be reversed after the 3-day Veteran’s Day weekend. Yet here we are on Monday with rates still surging higher.

For most of the Summer, rates never moved outside an eighth of percentage point range. Even when rates are trending higher or lower, it typically takes weeks to see a move to the next eighth point increment. Now we’ve seen rates move an eighth of a point higher on EACH of the past 3 business days. This has only happened a handful of times, ever.

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