Last week's economic reports included readings on inflation, the minutes of the most recent meeting of the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee and weekly reports on mortgage rates and first-time jobless claims.
Last week's economic releases included readings from Case-Shiller, pending home sales, and consumer sentiment. Weekly reports on mortgage rates and first-time jobless claims were also released.
March home prices were again dominated by the Northwest with Portland, Oregon posting a year-over-year gain of 12.30 percent followed by Seattle, Washington's year-over-year gain of 10.80 percent.
Last week's economic reports included new home sales, pending home sales along with weekly mortgage rates and new jobless claims.
New home sales surpassed expectations and consumer sentiment rose for July; these readings among others suggest that the economy continued to improve and that consumer confidence in the economy improved as well.
Last week saw a relatively quiet week due to the 4th of July holiday, but there were some housing-related developments.
The past week was active for economic news and mortgage rates. The aftermath of the Fed's indication that it may start dialing back its multi-billion dollar monthly purchases of Treasury and mortgage backed securities has sent mortgage rates to record highs.
Comments by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke after Wednesday's FOMC meeting caused havoc in financial markets as investors anticipated the potential effects of any rollback of the Fed's policy of quantitative easing (QE). Chairman Bernanke said that the Fed may begin reducing its $85 billion monthly purchase of Treasury securities and MBS toward the end of this year.
Mortgage rates rose last week with average rates a 30-year fixed rate mortgage rising from last week's 3.35 percent to 3.42 percent with buyers paying all closing costs and 0.7 percent in discount points.
Mortgage rates fell last week and approached or reached record low levels. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage (FRM) fell from 3.40 percent to 3.35 percent. Average rates for a 15-year FRM moved from 2.61percent to 2.56 percent.
Mortgage rates fell again last week and are again near record lows. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 15-year fixed rate mortgage did achieve a record low of 2.61 percent as compared to 3.1 percent one year ago. The average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell to 3.40 percent and near the record low of 3.31 percent.