For most the quarter mortgage rates have been below 4%.  There has been a steady drip in week over week reporting and currently they ended August at 3.820%, which was down four basis points from the previous week.  The rate reported is for the benchmark 30-year Fixed Rate mortgage.  A full recap of popular programs is listed below:

August 31, 2017 (Freddie Mac Primary Market Rate Survey)

	30-Yr FRM	15-Yr FRM	5/1-Yr ARM
Average Rates	3.82%	3.12%	3.14%
Fees & Points	0.5	0.5	0.5
Margin	N/A	N/A	2.74

 

As more consumers are purchasing homes or refinancing their existing mortgages, tighter competition for affordable mortgage money could be the result.  Thus, experts suggest the trend may reverse as rates move higher.  Of course, that is the projection but for now the current rate range appears stable.

 

Rates for the most recent week were posted Thursday or August 31^st.  However, on Friday, September 1^st the Bureau of Labor Statistics released monthly employment numbers for August.  While many were jubilant that July’s numbers exceeded expectations, August numbers brought them back to reality as there were 156,000 new jobs reported.  That number was a sharp reduction from July, and way below the 2016 monthly average of 187,000 new jobs.

 

Harvey

 

Of course, with the disaster of hurricane Harvey and other regional issues both mortgage and employment data should see some immediate adjustments.  Construction employment surely will see a pick-up, however in the Texas region there is some concern as industry experts peg undocumented construction labor at nearly thirty percent.  Based on the Trump administration unpopular focus on building “the wall” and removing undocumented people from the United States, many from that population are petrified of being targeted resulting in their unwillingness to come forward and perform jobs they have done prior to the attention of their plight.  The bottom line is if these workers are unavailable the cost of recovery will be much higher.