Last Week's Mortgage Rate Recap: Rates improved 👍
Good news for last week as mortgage rates improved to end the week slightly lower than the week before. It wasn't a big improvement, with most borrowers seeing better rebate pricing rather than actual lower rates, but it was still welcome after seeing rates creep higher the last couple of weeks.
This Week's Mortgage Rate Forecast: Rates could be volatile ⚠️
Rates will take their cue from this week's labor market data, but shouldn't make any big moves higher or lower regardless of which direction they go. The outlook for the near future is that rates will continue to move higher or lower day-to-day, but not make any big moves without something changing in the economic or labor market outlook.
What's affecting rates this week:
- Jobs data: This week will be filled with different jobs reports starting on Tuesday, with Friday's BLS jobs data having the biggest effect on mortgage rates.
- Tariffs and trade war: Despite recent positive news, tariffs continue to be a concern to markets with talk from other countries of retaliatory tariffs. Retailers are starting to talk about passing along the increased costs to consumers, which will drive up inflation and could pressure mortgage rates higher.