Bonds ended the week higher and Mortgage Rates lower, after a dismal jobs report. Employers added 80,000 jobs in June, below the 100,000 expected as job growth continues to weaken. The 3.5% coupon closed at yet another record high of 105.75 up 28bp. Remember Mortgage rates move in the opposite direction of Mortgage Bond prices. I Continue to recommend short-term locking, longer-term floating.
Housing
The Kipplinger Letter reported-“The housing outlook is brightening, but improvement will be uneven in 2013. Construction of single-family homes in May confirms signs of a comeback,and overall starts, including apartments, will give a mild lift to 2012 economic growth. Foreclosures will continue to be a drag on sales and prices for some time. Builders say a third of deals unravel due to low appraisals caused by distressed sales”.
Home Prices Rise for Third Consecutive Month
The Core Logic research firm said when excluding distressed home sales, prices actually shot up 2.7% over year-ago levels and rose 2.3% from April. Figures from May show home prices nationwide increasing for the third consecutive month in a row.
“The recent upward trend in U.S. home prices is an encouraging signal that we may be seeing a bottoming of the housing down cycle,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and chief executive officer of CoreLogic. “Tighter inventory is contributing to broad, but modest, price gains nationwide and more significant gains in the harder-hit markets, like Phoenix.” CoreLogic’s Pending Home Price Index suggests that home prices will rise another 1.4% from May to June. When excluding distressed sales, that number is expected to jump by 2%. Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist, said home price appreciation in the lower-priced segment of the market is growing at a faster rate than the upper end.
“Home prices below 75% of the national median increased 5.7% from a year ago, compared to only a 1.8% increase for prices 125% or more of the median,” he said.
The five states experiencing the most price appreciation include Arizona (prices up 12%); Idaho (up 9.2%); South Dakota (up 8.7%); Montana (up 8.2%); and Michigan (up 7.9%). Areas with the greatest price depreciation include Delaware (prices down 9%); Rhode Island (prices down 4.4%); Illinois (prices down 4.2%); Alabama (prices down 4.1%); and Georgia (prices down 4%). Source,The Housing Wire