Last Week's Mortgage Rate Recap: Rates improved 👍
Mortgage rates improved last week as stocks plummeted and market concerns about a potential recession grew. Friday's jobs data came in mixed, showing more jobs were created in March than were forecast but unemployment ticked up from 4.1 to 4.2%. Overall a great week for rates, but on Friday we saw signs that the rate rally was losing steam.
This Week's Mortgage Rate Forecast: Rates could be volatile ⚠️
Rates are starting the week off moving slightly higher, giving back some of last week's gains. Markets will continue to react to the most current tariff headlines, including rumors, which could cause mortgage rates to whipsaw. There is no clear direction that rates will improve or get worse this week, it will all be reactionary.
What's affecting rates this week:
- Tariffs: The tariffs announced last week were much higher than markets had anticipated, which led stocks to sell off and traders to move money to safe havens including bonds, which helped mortgage rates improve. Any talk that tariffs will be paused or reduced could push rates higher this week.
- Inflation data: The CPI inflation report this week could see mortgage rates react to better or worse inflation than expected.