Stock markets continue to rally to record levels – Both the S&P and DOW hit record highs on Friday following a week of very strong corporate earnings reports. Afternoon comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powel about tapering down asset purchases and his expectation of more persistent inflation than he previously expected caused stocks to slip off their record highs at the end of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week at 35,677.02, up 1.1% from 35,294.76 last week. It is up 16.5% year-to-date. The S&P 500 closed the week at 4,544.71, up 1.6% from 4,471.37 last week. It is up 21.5% year-to-date. The NASDAQ closed the week at 15,090.20, up 1.3% from 14,897.34 last week. It is up 16.8% year-to-date.
U.S. Treasury bond yields – The 10-year treasury bond closed the week yielding 1.66%, up from 1.59% last week. The 30-year treasury bond yield ended the week at 2.08%, up slightly from 2.05% last week. We watch bond yields because mortgage rates often follow treasury bond yields.
Mortgage rates – The October 21, 2021, Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Survey reported mortgage rates for the most popular loan products as follows: The 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 3.09%, up slightly from 3.05% last week. The 15-year fixed was 2.33%, up slightly from 2.30% last week. The 5-year ARM was 2.54% almost unchanged from 2.55% last week.
U.S. Existing-home sales increase 7% in September – The National Association of Realtors reported that existing-home sales jumped 7% from the number of sales reported in August. Year-over-year sales were down 2.3% from the near record of sales one year ago. The median price paid for a home in the United States increased 13.3% from last September.
California home sales rise 5.6% month-over-month in September – The California Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales totaled 438,190, up 5.6% month-over-month from August, and down 10.5% year-over-year from September 2020. Year-to-date sales are up 16.8% from the same period last year. The median price paid for an existing home in September was $808,890, up 13.5% from last September when the median price was $712,430. There was a 1.9 month supply of homes for sale in September, down slightly from a 2.0 month supply of homes for sale one year ago.
The graph below shows activity by County for Southern California.
Sources:
- Rodeo Realty, Inc.