Charleston mortgage report, May 28 2009
I'll interrupt our normally scheduled broadcast to give you a mortgage update. Regular readers will know that while mortgage rates are based on the price of mortgage backed securities, there has always been a close correlation between mortgage rates and the yield on a Ten Year Treasury. And yesterday, the 10 year rate soared to its highest rate in 6 months so you can expect mortgage rates to be higher. Actually, yesterday, most lenders repriced their mortgage rates several times in the afternoon alone.
Charts of 10 year Treasuries for the last 12 months and 30 year mortgage rates for the past 5 years courtesy of Marketwatch and Bankrate.com
Action by the Fed and Treasury over the past 6 months have kept mortgage rates "artificially" low but you can bet they'll be pressured due to the recent upward trend in Treasuries. I'm sure that Ben and Tim were up late into the night trying to figure out how to keep mortgage rates low.
But, having said that, we're still talking mortgage rates for 30 year fixed rate loans hovering slightly over 5 percent. For anyone considering buying Charleston real estate, rates are still historically low.
UPDATE: an excellent article by Luke Mullins at US News and World Report.