Low Mortgage Rates Unchanged Following New Jobs Report

The U.S. government has supplied the latest proof that economic recovery is underway: approximately 227,000 new jobs were created in February 2012 while the unemployment rate remained steady at 8.3 percent. Reacting to the news, home mortgage purchase applications increased 4.4 percent for the first time in more than a month, revealed a Mortgage Bankers  Association survey.

For the real estate sector and for the agents themselves who have a real estate license or a real estate continuing education—whether that’s a South Carolina real estate CE or a California real estate CE—that points to increasingly more opportunities as the market gradually normalizes for business.

Freerateupdate.com's survey results of wholesale and direct lenders indicate current mortgage rates holding steady even after the jobs report came out. Remaining at all-time lows, the 30-year fixed mortgage rates are unchanged at 3.50 percent, the 15-year fixed mortgage rates are intact at 2.86 percent and 5/1 adjustable mortgage rates are at 2.25 percent. 

In the run-up weeks to the report, a dip in mortgage refinance activity was recorded, which observers attributed to the forthcoming Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) 2.0, due out by this March. HARP is designed to help the borrower whose loan is in trouble acquire a more affordable, more stable mortgage without the customary loan-to-value requirements and the necessity of an appraisal. Since Harp 2.0 is available through 2013, borrowers have ample time to update their mortgage payments to apply for the program.

The record-low mortgage rates—the 15-year fixed-rate slipping to its lowest in 60 years and the 30-year fixed-rate dipping to very nearly its lowest—and new jobs, according to Freddie Mac, point to a housing-sector recovery.

The 15-year-fixed-rate mortgage, a favorite among homeowners planning to refinance, clocked in at 3.13 percent on the first week of March while the 30-year-fixed-rate mortgage was at 3.88 percent, a hair shy (0.01 percentage point) of its standing record low.

"With these historically low rates and declining house prices, the typical family had more than double the income needed to purchase a median-priced home in January," noted Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist.

Based on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index, 75.9 percent of all new and existing homes sold during the three months ending on Dec. 31 were well within the purchasing power of families earning the national median income of $64,200. For instance: a $200,000 home under a 15-year-fixed-rate loan of 3.13 percent needed just $1,394 a month. A year before that, borrowers were triumphant to get 4.15 percent 15-year mortgage, paying $1,494 a month.