Texas Mortgage Rate Update 7/24/2008
Texas mortgage rates have moved slightly lower today. Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and College Station interest rates still near all time historical lows.
The House of Representatives have approved a sweeping housing bill by a vote of 272-152 and the legislation is now being debated by members of the Senate. It’s not likely the legislation will be completely derailed in the Senate, but it may be a number of days yet before the bill lands on President Bush’s desk for his signature, though there are many that expect the President to have it in his hands before the weekend.
Among other provisions this bill will create a program aimed at helping an estimated 400,000 Texas homeowners with subprime home loans to refinance into 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages backed by the government. It will also allow the GSE’s (government sponsored enterprises - a shorthand reference to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) to increase their maximum loan size to $625,000, or the median home price for the area plus 15.0%, whichever is lower. I am not sure how the median home price for the area will be determined, but I did read this morning that Representative Barney Frank, one of the architects of this bill, reassured the press the current cap of 417,000 will not decrease.
In a separate report the National Association of Realtors reported a bigger-than-expected 2.6% slump in the pace of June Existing Home Sales. Existing homes sold at their most sluggish clip since the first quarter of 1998. The median home price was $215,100 in June.
The Treasury is set to auction $21 billion of 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET today. From a technical perspective this offering may require Uncle Sam to push the yield (total return to the investor) higher in order to attract the necessary capital. If my assessment proves accurate, a rising 5-year note yield this afternoon will carry a high potential for nudging Texas home mortgage interest rates fractionally higher as well.
As always, If you have ever have a question on whether it is the best time for you to refinance your Texas loan or what interest rate you can get when buying your next Texas home, feel free to give us a call or shoot us an email by filling in your information on the right hand side of this page.