Rates Move Back Below 6%

Happy Friday from Local Mortgage!

The positive rate movement continued this week as we are now back into the pre-war rate range. We will end the week back down to 5.875% for our best 30-year fixed conventional scenario.

Progress in reaching a deal to end the conflict in the Middle East caused a decline in oil prices, which was positive for both stocks and bonds this week. Not much has changed over the last 45 days from an economic data standpoint, so it stands to reason that rates should return to their pre-war levels.

This week’s only real major report was the March Producer Price Index (PPI) which was 4% higher than a year ago and up sharply from 3.4% in February. However, investors tend to place a lot more weight on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) so the impact of this higher reading was minimal.

Next week will be another light week for economic data with the most significant report being Retail Sales on Tuesday.

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