Thursday saw Existing Home Sales shoot up 12.3% in December, to an annual rate of 5.28 million, well ahead of the 4.87 million rate the consensus expected. Overall, existing home sales are off 2.9% compared to a year ago, but that's when sales were artificially boosted by the homebuyer tax credits. All regions showed sales gains in single family homes, condos and coops.
Favorable conditions helped Austin mortgage rates move a little lower last week. The inflation data released during the week showed that inflation continued to remain at very low levels. In addition, demand for longer-term Treasury securities was strong.
There were few surprises from the economic news released this week. The U.S. economic data generally was very close to the consensus forecasts, and activity levels were low during the holiday season. While daily volatility remained high, Austin mortgage rates ended the week nearly unchanged from last week.
