Mortgage Rates Surged This Week As Lenders Increased Prices To Help Manage Skyrocketing Refinances

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.65% from 3.36% last week. A year at this time, the Rate was 4.28%. This is expected to be a short-term phenomenon as lenders work through Their backlog,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “On the purchase front, daily Loan purchase applications were rising as of mid-February but started to decline last Friday.”

The first sign of the coronavirus fallout hit the labor market this morning as Weekly Initial Jobless Claims spiked 70,000 to 281,000 for the week ended March 14. Many states across The country are reporting big first time claims and that will continue for the foreseeable future Given that many businesses have shut down or are seeing little activity. Claims could rise Further as the virus concerns hit employers' bottom line.