New rates?

In this space a month or so ago we asked the question: what will happen to rates? The answer for the past few weeks since the election has been, they are going up.
With a measure of consistency and almost daily, mortgage rates have risen since the November election and as of right now do not show signs of coming back down. Rates are driven by many factors, but it seems that the overall positive economic news is creating inflation fears. That drove the Federal Reserve to raise the rates in December and comment on the possibility of many more to come in 2017.
Hopefully homeowners who were interested in refinancing to capture the low rates were able to do so. This increase in rates will slow down the refinance activity, while many predict a continuation of a good purchase year in housing.
So will rates continue to rise, or will they go down? No one really knows. There are so many factors to drive rates including the previously mentioned economic data, energy prices, global unrest, and the new administration. As each of these play out, we will watch with you and see what rates might do.
In a volatile market like this, it is best to be conservative. Rates will usually get worse much faster than they get better.
Jayson Stebbins is a 23-year veteran of the mortgage banking industry. Contact Jayson at (408) 825-0220 or at stebbinsmortgageteam.com.