Mortgage rates fell all across the board this week with as the housing continues to rebound. The thirty year fixed averaged 4.83% with .07 points, its lowest level in six weeks. The average on the 30-year fixed was 4.98% three weeks ago and 6.04% at this time last year. National rates for the 15- year mortgage, a popular mortgage refinancing option among consumers, also dropped, with the average decreasing 4 basis points to 4.32%- the lowest rate ever on record.
The recent fall in rates is not surprising as the Fed recently finished wrapping up its 12 month $300 billion treasury buyback program and continues its efforts in purchasing $1.25 trillion worth of mortgage-backed-securities. Despite rates lingering just above all time lows in the recent months, the national volume for mortgage loan applications is at its lowest point in almost twelve years. Read the rest of this entry »
With the whole world yet stuck in recession, China is probably the only one that is unaffected by this global trauma. With the growth rate of 8.9% in the last quarter, china’s economy is booming and is expected to improve more during the rest of the year. As stated by Mr. Xiaochao, spokesman for National Bureau of Statistics, the condition of the Chinese economy is very stable and good at the moment.
The European economy is improving and seems to have come out of recession. This conclusion is based on the fact that between July and September, the economy has grown. For all the countries that use the Euro, there was a combined growth of 0.4 %. This has happened after shrinking for 0.2% between the month of April and June. The French and German economies both grew consecutively for the second quarter indicating that both of them, which also happen to be the biggest economy of the eurozone, are out of recession. But a point of concern has been that the growth hasn’t been as much as expected.
