While the news is not bad, the rates fell. This week we got the December consumer price index, and it was down .1%, with the core rate up .1%.
December housing starts were down .25%, and building permits were down 3.9%. All are not good signs, as construction is a driver for jobs and oozes through the economy on all levels.
Some experts say that 1 house being built creates 66 jobs, so a whole tract of homes is a lot of jobs. If builders are not pulling permits for new construction, that means that a stronger economy might not be on the horizon.
In the meantime today, Friday, we got news that December existing home sales were up an impressive 14.7%.
To dissect this, it means people went into escrow in droves in October and November to close in December.
So in my opinion, it’s a wait and see kind of thing, but good news for sure.
Thursday weekly initial jobless claims were up way more than usual at 10,000 filing for unemployment versus the more normal rate of 7000. Another bad sign.
Strangely the good news did not hurt the mortgage market as the stock market continues its 2016 decline. Bad stock news is good for rates.
So another mixed bag of news all means LOCK now with rates being at their lowest in a long time.
Bad stock market news gave us a .25% drop in rates over the last weeks with this week remaining flat over last week
Again, don’t gamble = lock in your rate now.
Call me at 310-218-6855 or email at Athena@AthenaPaquette.com