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The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the average American family spends $614 a month on automobiles. This includes finance payments, gasoline, repairs, and insurance.

Let’s relate that $614 per month to home buying.

Based on a 6.500 percent, fully-amortizing mortgage payment, that same $614 yields an equivalent of $97,000 in additional home purchasing power.

With an [...]

Momentum trading and safe haven buying created a roller coaster-like week for mortgage rates last week.

This week, mortgage bonds should trade on data, by contrast.

Tuesday, at 8:30 A.M. ET, three important releases hit the wires:

Producer Price Index (The cost of doing business)
Industrial Production (How many goods are being produced?)
Capacity Utilization (Can more goods be [...]

Weakness in Retail Sales data this morning is causing a knee-jerk reaction in trading circles, edging mortgage rates lower this morning.

Against expectations of a flat reading, retailers reported a 0.9% decrease in sales volume in June. This is the largest reported drop in two years.

As we’ve discussed before, though, when looking at data trends, [...]

Credit “piggybacking” used to be a handy way to boost a person’s credit score in order to help them get a home loan approval. Starting in September, it’s going the way of the Dodo bird.

Piggybacking involves linking one person’s strong credit rating to another person’s weak credit rating.

By adding the latter as [...]

On the week, mortgage rates are slightly improved as traders keep a watchful eye on tomorrow’s Retail Sales report.

Largely, markets want to know how Americans are using their disposable income. Are they buying big-ticket items like automobiles? Are they buying luxury items? Are they buying appliances and home goods?

Retail Sales is released [...]

Before paying down your mortgage balance with extra principal payments, be sure to plan carefully.

The biggest risk in lending for banks is that you will suddenly stop paying your mortgage. In that event, the banks hope that you owe them as little as possible against the value of the home.

That way, your [...]

Crude oil prices have been increasing lately and that tends to lead to higher gas prices at the pump.

The heat map at right is courtesy of GasBuddy.com, a Web site that tracks gas prices on a national, state, county, city and hyper-local basis.

According to GasBuddy.com, gasoline prices are beginning to rise after 7 weeks of [...]

As expected, the holiday-shortened week led to extreme volatility in mortgage rates, led by better-than-expected job growth and rising wages for workers.

In conjunction, these two data points lead to increased consumer spending and the prospect of higher spending pushes the economic slowdown likelihood lower.

That’s bad news for mortgage rate shoppers because [...]

On a stronger-than-expected jobs report and upward revisions to April and May’s figures, mortgage rates are moving higher this morning.

Against an expectation of 120,000, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported that 132,000 new jobs were created in June. This not a huge deal in and of itself.

It’s the revisions that are [...]

Mortgage markets are making like last night’s fireworks, exploding in the sky with a bang.

There are three main factors pushing rates higher today:

Bank of England raised their interest rates by 0.25% and foreshadowed future increases
European Central Bank Chairman Jean-Claude Trichet said that inflation is “likely to rise again significantly towards the end of the year”.
The [...]