Rates continue slow and steady decline: Lowest since 2022

Happy Friday from Local Mortgage!

Another small improvement this week for mortgage rates as we have now moved to the lowest levels since September of 2022, now down to 5.5% for our best 30-year fixed conventional scenario.

In the absence of major economic news this week, it was really the broader markets that were the catalysts as bonds and treasuries improved as stocks weakened. Mortgage rates moving down gradually in the absence of headline news, is a really good sign for markets in the coming months, as it points to sustainability.    

In the little economic news, we did get this week, the Producer Price Index (PPI) jumped 0.8% from December, the largest monthly increase since March 2022. The PPI, however, has held very little relevance with investors over the last few years and it doesn’t appear that sentiment has changed. In labor market news, this week’s jobless claims were well below the consensus forecast at 212,000.

Next week brings the typical early month, headline economic data with ISM manufacturing index on Monday and the key employment report on Friday.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and thank you for reading.