April 30, 2020
The size and depth of the secondary mortgage market is helping to keep rates at record lows. These low rates are driving higher refinance activity and have modestly helped improve purchase demand from their extremely low levels in mid-April. While many people are benefitting from low mortgage rates, it’s important to remember that not all people are able to take advantage of them given the current pandemic.
Information provided by Freddie Mac.
The Department of Labor’s initial jobless claims report released April 16th showed 5,245,000 new weekly claims, which is a decrease of nearly 1.4 million from last week. New initial claims are expected to continue to decline but still remain at high levels in the next few weeks. This week the Commerce Department reported new construction building permits were at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.35 million in March, which is 5% higher than last year. However, that is expected to decline in April as the impact of COVID-19 is more fully realized.
In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending April 18:
For the month of March:
All comparisons are to 2019
Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report. From MAAR Market Data News.
April 23, 2020
Mortgage rates have stabilized over the last few weeks as the market searches for direction in the fog of economic data. While financial markets initially rallied on the news of Federal Reserve support and are improving due to the Senate’s passage of a new small business stimulus, we continue to see a deep economic contraction amidst uncertainty about the recovery formation.
Information provided by Freddie Mac.
Sales were up compared to last year – a welcome and reassuring direction in a low supply marketplace.
This week’s initial jobless claims report from the Department of Labor showed another 6.6 million workers filed last week and revised the prior week’s claims up by 219,000 to nearly 6.9 million. Millions of additional initial jobless claims are likely to be reported in the next few weeks as the full impact of shelter-in-place policies becomes apparent. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac reported that the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rate remained flat at 3.33% this week, down from an average of 4.12% a year ago.
In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending April 11:
For the month of March:
All comparisons are to 2019
Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report. From MAAR Market Data News.