Rates Remain Basically Unchanged

Mortgage rates once again remained basically the same over the last week, averaging 3.10%, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. Freddie’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) found that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.10%, sticking with a weeks-long pattern of hovering around 3.10% or 3.11%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.71%. “Mortgage rates have moved sideways over the last several weeks, fluctuating within a narrow range,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist.  “Going forward, the path that rates take will be directly impacted by more information about the Omicron variant as it is revealed and the overall trajectory of the pandemic. In the meantime, rates remain low and stable, even as the nation faces declining…

Analysts Are Cautiously Optimistic Omicron Won’t Damage Housing Market

Investors and economic analysts are closely monitoring Omicron, the Covid-19 variant taking the news cycle by storm, as the country enters the busy holiday season. The question on mortgage professionals’ minds is: how will Omicron affect the housing market? Analysts’ answers are mixed, but the overall trend is cautious optimism. “Right now, we are looking at pretty severe reactions to the omicron news in the stock market,” Tomas Jandik, a finance professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, told Realtor.com. “The residential market may be more immune to COVID because of what we have already seen in the past waves of the virus.” “It is unlikely that rates will move down any further due to the new Omicron variant,”…

Freddie Mac: Little Change In Interest Rates

Mortgage rates remained basically the same over the last week, averaging 3.11%, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. Freddie’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) found that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.11%, up only a smidge from last week’s 3.10%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.71% “Mortgage rates continue to remain stable notwithstanding volatility in the financial markets,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist.  “The consistency of rates in the face of changes in the economy is primarily due to the evolution of the pandemic, which lingers and continues to pose uncertainty. This low mortgage rate environment offers favorable conditions for refinancing.” The emerging Omicron variant of Covid-19 has dampened hopes of normalcy returning, and…