What’s up, everybody, Sean Zalmanoff here with this mortgage rate update for… What week is this? This is November 30th. We are in the last month of the year. We are a day away from the last month of this year, wow. 2020 has brought some joy, some sorrow, but damn, it has been a year we are going to remember, that is for sure.
We do have some good news this morning. We’ve been talking a lot about vaccines, one, because it’s important news, but two, because these really have potential to move the market. Moderna announced their final of their phase three study this morning, and the results were as good as was reported a few weeks ago, with the efficacy rate of over 94%. They are going to push today for emergency approval from the FDA, which means that our life should get back to normal a little more sooner than later, at least than what we thought a few months ago.
As that happens, as people spend more money, as things go out in the economy that would inflate the economy, and as I’ve told you many, many times, inflation is the arch enemy of bonds, which is the arch enemy of any fixed rate security instrument, which means rates will probably go up a little bit at some point eventually in the future. Again, not a lot to worry about right now, because we are again at the lows of rates again, last Friday we ticked down and today we are still holding the lows that rates have really ever traded at. If you’re thinking of buying, if you’re thinking of refinancing, now is still an amazing time to do that.
Let’s see what else? Oh, big news this week. As happens every first Friday of the month, we have the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the jobs report. They are expecting 500,000 new jobs to be created, expecting unemployment to tick down from 6.9 to 6.8%. Again, this is positive news. Nobody thought in May and June that we’d be at this point, but that still is a depressed number because of the labor participation rate and people not being in the market. And really, we all know a lot of people who are still hurt by what’s going on out there.
Speaking of people who are hurt, today’s Cyber Monday. And so, you all are going online and finding your awesome, amazing deals. And that’s great too, but you know who really needs you today? My team needs you. No, I’m just kidding, we’re always here for you. Your local businesses need you. One of the great losers we know are restaurants, and the service industry has suffered so much during this pandemic. Another unfortunate, huge loser and one of the main driving forces for jobs in our economy is small businesses, all these stores that some of us are shopping at less, some of us have abandoned altogether for all the big-box realtors who, I’m not going to name their names because you already know them well. While you’re looking online and while you’re doing your Cyber Monday shopping, do the world a favor, do your local community a favor and go online and check out what they have going on.
You know, maybe just go to their store and pay full price for something that they have. Really, they’ll probably actually take it curbside right out to your car if you don’t want to go in. If you do, you’re helping your community, you’re moving the needle for people that really matter. Those people are going to spend more dollars in your area, which will in turn, you’re probably listening to this because you’re interested in real estate, and it’ll help support mortgages, and it’ll help support values, and it’ll make your community stronger. So please, on this Cyber Monday, which I think is now Cyber December, don’t forget about your small businesses. Please help them out.
I’m Sean Zalmanoff and we are here always to help you with your mortgage needs. If you’ve got some real estate questions, just reach out to us. We have a lot of tools, technology, and we just want to be here for you. Hope you have a great week, peace, y’all.
