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  | Last Week in Review:There was some surprising good news last week. Find out how that impacted home loan rates.Forecast for the Week: A full week of news is ahead, with reports on consumer spending, manufacturing, inflation, housing and jobless claims.View: Dont be a statistic this flu seasonand dont let your clients or colleagues be one either. Sharethese tips below. |   |
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  | Last Week in Review   |

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  | They say that no news is good news. But last week, several reports brought some surprising good news to the markets. Read on for details and what they mean for home loan rates.There was good news on the labor front, as last weeks Initial Jobless Claims fell to 33 9,000, the lowest levelin over four years. This news came on the heels of the surprising drop in the unemployment rate to 7.8% in September. This is encouraging news and could ease fears of slowing growth.Also encouraging was the news from RealtyTrac that foreclosure activity declined to a five-year low in September, falling 7% from August and 16% from the same period last year. Housing has already improvedsubstantially in certain parts of the country and this news bodes well for those states and areas that struggled with high foreclosure activity. Rounding out the week was some of the most surprising news of all: Consumer Sentiment surged to 83.1 in October, the highest level in five years.Tempering this good news was a report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which said that the world economy willgrow by 3.3% this year, the slowest since 2009. The IMF said that unless Europe and the U.S. address the financial threats to their resp ective economies, growth will continue to slow.So what does all of this mean for home loan rates? Remember that good economic news normally causes investors to move their money out of safer investments like Bondsincluding Mortgage Bonds, which home loan rates arebased onand into riskier investments like Stocks to try and take advantage of gains. However, the Feds continued Mortgage Bond purchases as part of their third round of Quantitative Easing (QE3) and tame wholesale inflation data helped Bonds and home loan rates remain near record lows last week.The bottom line is that now is a great time to consider a home purchase or refinance, as home loan ratesremain near historic lows. Let me know if I can answer any questions at all for you or your clients. |   |
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  | Forecast for the Week   |

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  | Economic data is in abundance this week and will give investors clues as to whether or not the economy is progressing now that QE3 is in full swing. * The economic data kicks right off on Monday with RetailSales for September. * The manufacturing sector will also be in the news Monday with the New York State Manufacturing Index, followed by the Philadelphia Fed Index on Thursday. * Inflation news in the form of the Consumer Price Index will be delivered on Tuesday. * Housing news is coming on Wednesday with Housing Starts and Building Permits, and again on Friday with the Existing Home Sales Report.Housing data has been positive of late and the reports may give further signs that a housing reco very is in the making. * Thursday's weekly Initial Jobless Claims data will be closely watched after last week's large drop.Remember: Weak economic news normally causes money to flow out of Stocks and into Bonds, helping Bonds and home loan rates improve, while strong economic news normally has theopposite result. The chart below shows Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), which are the type of Bond that home loan rates are based on.When you see these Bond prices moving higher, it means home loan rates are improving and when they are moving lower, home loan rates are getting worse.To go one step further a red candle means that MBS worsened during the day, while a green candle means MBS...