This blog is going to be an exercise in seeing how many words we can squeeze out of almost no news or anything of any real interest

Mortgage Rates Too Low For Canadians?

That’s thirty-three right there.

Yesterday mortgage backed securities were flat, and mortgage rates were the same.

This morning, MBS are in the red, presumably on optimism that Greece and its creditors are on the verge of a deal.

Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard that before if I had the ability, I’d make a video of the various parties meeting and speaking and drop “Yakety-Sax ” behind it.

Because this whole thing has played out like the end of a Benny Hill episode.

Just an exercise in European political nonsense.

Looks like they’ll kick the can after all (maybe apparently Tripras is saying Greece’s creditors are blackmailing them the hits just keep on coming).

Anyway, mortgage rates were largely flat this week, despite the day-to-day volatility.

Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to be 4.

The highest reading of the year was two weeks ago, at 4.

With any luck, things have stabilized since the spike we saw in May.

Just for scale, the lowest reading of the year was 3.

Today’s economic data: Only one piece of data today, and it is at best second-tier data.

The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Survey for June came in at 96.

Greece: I mean, what more is there to say at this point?

Yesterday (or two days ago I forget/don’t care at this point), Angela Merkel said something to the effect of “we won’t be blackmailed by Greece.

Now some headlines say that the sides are close to striking a deal.

It’s well worth mentioning that this deal needs to pass through the Greek Parliament, and a lot of the Greeks seem mighty pissed about getting their pensions cut.

Also, unemployment in Greece is north of 26%, and more austerity ain’t gonna help that either.

I mean, who knows what happens here.

It’s going to come down to can-kicking and Greek and European internal politics.

The whole thing is like a Russian nesting doll of dysfunction.

But hey, what more can you expect from the people who brought you this.

The inevitable result of which was this.

Which then of course lead to this (admittedly, we had huge part in this).

But What Does All This Mean for Mortgage Rates?

But they’ve stabilized at the highest levels we’ve seen since last fall.

Assuming that the whole Greek deal works out, (I big assumption I grant you), we could see them rise a little further.

The economy seems to (finally) be improving, and it looks like the path will be cleared for the Fed to begin hiking rates in September (although the Chinese economy looks to be taking a nosedive, which would not be good for the world economy, not one bit).

Point being, I think the chances that rates end the year around 4.

I say it every day, but if you’re looking for a mortgage, you probably should act sooner rather than later.

And Now for Something Completely Different: This is not a political blog, but let’s take this opportunity to applaud some common sense.

Thank you John Roberts.

I thought for sure they’d take a pass.

As Robert Allen Zimmerman of Hibbing, Minnesota (yeah, I know he was born in Duluth) once said, the times, they are a-changing.

And let’s all take a minute to give the one-finger salute to Antonin Scalia, who gives Roger Taney a run for his money.

Same goes for you, Clarence Thomas.