Columnist Don DeBat weighs in on the ups and downs of mortgageland in the August issue of New Homes Magazine, which hit the stands yesterday:
With home sales slumping and 10-year Treasury note prices seesawing between 4.87 percent and 5.32 percent during June, economists had trouble getting a solid read on the direction of both the housing market and interest rates.
Following the Federal Reserve Board’s decision to keep the federal-funds rate unchanged at 5.25 percent, benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rates eased a bit in early July after peaking at nearly 6.75 percent in mid-June.
Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey pegged benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgages at an average of 6.63 percent in early July. Last year at this time, 30-year fixed home loans averaged 6.79 percent.
Read the full story at New Homes Magazine online.