Mortgage Interest Rates Make Dramatic Rise After Bailout Passes

This week 30 year mortgage rates rose over half a30-yr $1258.87
point. This is the largest one week increase this year.15-yr $1702.87
It's interesting that the rate increases happened after5-yr ARM $1217.16
the bailout was passed by the government. Although1-yr ARM $1093.28
this is not a sign the bailout will fail its not a positive signOctober 9th
of its future effectiveness. The primary purpose of the30-yr $1191.39
bailout was to influence banks to lend. And "hopefully"15-yr $1647.99
taking away billions of bad loans would cause banks to5-yr ARM $1647.99
ease restrictions and lower rates. Instead we are1-yr ARM $1092.05
seeing a dramatic rise in rates. In essence the banksSeptember 25th
are saying thanks for the money but it's not going to30-yr $1210.69
cause us to lend. How much have rates risen?15-yr $1662.96
Besides a period at the end of July and the beginning5-yr ARM $1201.67
of August 30 year mortgage rates are the highest1-yr ARM $1093.28
they have been all year. Below are rates for the lastSo as we can see the rate increases this week are
few weeks.anything but trivial. For a 200k mortgage the mortgage
October 16, 2008payment increased $67.48 which translates into a
30-yr 6.46 15-yr 6.14 5-yr ARM 6.14 1-yr ARM 5.165.7% increase. So what is going to happen in the next
October 9, 2008two weeks? Last week we said we didn't know if
30-yr 5.94 15-yr 5.63 5-yr ARM 5.90 1-yr ARM 5.15rates were going to go up or down but we felt
October 2, 2008mortgage interest rates would probably be volatile
30-yr 6.10 15-yr 5.78 5-yr ARM 6.00 1-yr ARM 5.12given the current market. That's what we saw this
September 25, 2008week and we continue to see a pretty volatile market.
30-yr 6.09 15-yr 5.77 5-yr ARM 6.02 1-yr ARM 5.16Additionally, I think the chance that rates will go down
The thing that jumps out here is that Arm ratesthis week is greater than the chance they will go up.
jumped up less than rates on fixed mortgages. In factBasically, after a large move up or down rates tend to
1 year arms hardly moved at all this week. This ishave a slight correction the next week. The other bit
probably because fixed rate mortgages have fallenof news is that the government is having a 7,500 tax
more over the last 2 months. In contrast, 1 year armscredit for first time home buyers. So hopefully that will
have kept pretty steady the last few weeks.to some degree offset the negative impact of higher
Ok let's look at what these rates mean for an actualinterest rates. The real question is what is going to
mortgage payment. Looking at a 200k loan lets seehappen over the next few months. The hope is that
what current mortgage rates translate into for athe bailout will eventually lower mortgage rates. But the
mortgage payment. In addition to today's rates we alsoinitial reaction (the largest jump all year) is anything but
looked at rates from last week and last month.positive.
October 16th