Many in the mortgage industry were anxiously waiting to view the results of the final jobs report of 2015 to see if the Federal Reserve was on track with its rate hike in December or see if they acted prematurely.
Well, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported better-than-expected job gains of 292 thousand for December in the Employment Summary for December 2015. Adding to December’s positive growth is the upward revisions of 50 thousand jobs in October and November to raise average job gains for the last three months up to 284 thousand. In addition, the number of unemployed persons was mostly flat in December at 7 point 9 million, while the unemployment rate was 5 percent for the third consecutive month.
Black Knight Financial Services’ Data and Analytics division reported in their latest Mortgage Monitor Report that as of November 2015, approximately 5 point 2 million borrowers could likely both qualify for and benefit from refinancing at today’s interest rates. Although the number of refinancers may appear to be large, it is actually down from over 7 million in April 2015. Interest rates were under 3 point 7 percent during this time, and the 20-year rate was 3 point 96.