Commentary: Different day - same story.
Mortgage interest rates are once again fluttering around in a relatively tight trading range - driven by the opposing forces of a safe haven bid from Middle East turmoil and improving domestic economic data.
Uncle Sam will be conducting a $21 billion 10-year note auction today. The auction will conclude at 1:00 p.m. ET. Most analysts expect domestic and foreign investors to show solid demand for this offering. If those expectations prove accurate, this event will likely be supportive of steady to perhaps fractionally lower mortgage interest rates. I'll post the auction results on my website as soon as possible once the final gavel falls.
As they do every Wednesday, the Mortgage Bankers of America have released their Mortgage Applications Survey figures for the week ended March 4th. According to the MBA, overall loan demand was up 15.5% from the prior week with purchase loan requests climbing 12.5% and refinance applications improving by 17.2%. The average national contract rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages finished the week at 4.93%, down by 9 basis-points from the prior week, down by 20 basis-points for the month-ago mark, and down by 8 basis-points from the year-ago level. Refinance applications accounted for a little more than 60% of all applications taken during the week.
THE MARKET IS ALWAYS RIGHT! . YOU AND I ARE SOME OF THE TIME
