Mortgage Weekly Update - Last Week in Review
Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports."WHO ARE YOU? WHO, WHO, WHO, WHO?" When Pete Townshend and The Who penned this song back in 1978, they probably never imagined that it would come to mind during a Fed Chairman's testimony to the House Budget Committee. But sure enough - one of the Representatives questioning Fed Chair Ben Bernanke actually mistook him for Treasury Secretary Paulson...and apologized by telling Bernanke that she got him "confused with the other one." Great reminder to keep an eye on what our elected officials are telling us during this particularly important year, as they might just have their facts a bit confused.
The financial markets also appear to be a bit confused of late, with some mixed data on the health and future of the economy causing continued volatility in both Stocks and Bonds. While there was plenty of mid-week action, home loan rates ended just slightly higher for the week overall.
The Stock market has gotten hammered lower since the beginning of the year, and last week was no exception. But when Stocks move lower, money can flow over into Bonds, helping home loan rates improve. What caused last week's action was a combination of terrible earnings reports from Citigroup and Merrill Lynch; higher inflation numbers indicated in the Consumer Price Index; lower than anticipated Retail Sales; a weak report from the Philadelphia Fed showing a sharp contraction in manufacturing activity; and a Housing Starts and Building Permits report showing the worst levels of starts and permits in about 16 years.
Read the entire report here.
- Foster Weeks
posted by SFResidence.com @ 7:44 AM
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