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Rates Are Better Today, But Not Back to 1-Year Lows

Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch

Mortgage rates recovered today after rising to the highest levels in a week as of yesterday. The improvement followed a much-weaker-than-expected Retail Sales report--something investors have been waiting on for nearly 2 months due to the government shutdown. Retail sales comprise an important part of economic activity, and the economy is one of the biggest considerations for interest rates. Generally speaking, economic strength pushes rates higher, all other thing being equal. Thus, the unexpectedly weak retail numbers had the opposite effect. How big was the effect? Not quite as big as most other media outlets would suggest. The discrepancy is due to the regular Thursday release of the industry's most widely-cited mortgage rate report from Freddie Mac. While that report is accurate for the...(read more)