Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch
Mortgage rates continued chipping away at the moderately abrupt increases seen last week. Today’s gains were indirectly a result of political instability in Greece. After Greece’s parliament failed to elect a new President, the country will be forced to hold a new national election. The frontrunner is an advocate of Greece exiting its bailout agreement. At best, this has growth implications for the Eurozone. At worst, it could be broadly destabilizing. When such things happen in Europe, the strongest countries with the soundest sovereign debt end up coming out ahead. The benchmark for European bond markets is Germany, and Germany’s 10yr sovereign debt yield fell to another record low today after the Greece news. Strength in the German bond market usually translates to strength in the US bond…(read more)