Outlook for mortgage rates

I have commented before that HSH Associates (HSH.com) publishes very good commentary on the mortgage market.
In this week’s article (which will be on their website on Monday) they point out:
1. The 30 year fixed rate mortgage is at a two year high, but hasn’t changed much in the last couple of months
2. Fear of the impact of a change in the Fed’s buying of mortgage backed securities on mortgage rates my be overdone. This is because the volume of new mortgage origination has declined as mortgage rates have moved up. In fact the Fed might end up buying a bigger percentage of a smaller market.
3. A possible reduction in the conforming loan limit by Fannie and Freddie. The article points out that historically this limit was set at the national median price level, but that it was not lowered during the crash (funnily enough, there was a lot of lobbying to keep the limit at the higher levels).Even if the loan limit is reduced the impact will be limited because jumbo rates are not much higher now than conventional rates – and recently were actually lower for a brief period.

Here is a link to the article:HSH mortgage commentary

If you are considering buying or selling a home and have questions about the market and/or current home prices, feel free to contact me on 781.631.1223 or [email protected].

Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Realty in Marblehead.