By James Brooks

The bond market is down 17/32 (2.38%), which should push Raleigh area mortgage rates higher by approximately .250 of a discount point.

September's Existing Home Sales data was posted at 10:00 AM ET this morning. The National Association of Realtors announced that home resales rose 0.7% last month when analysts were expecting to see a decline. This indicates that the housing sector was stronger than thought, making the data bad news for bonds and mortgage rates. However, this is only a moderately important report and is not the cause of this morning's losses.

What is fueling this morning's bond selling is overnight news that the Senate narrowly approved a new budget. It is believed that now allows attention to be turned towards President Trump's request for an overhaul of our tax system. That likely will be harder to get passed, but the bond market has reacted negatively to the possibility of it happening as a couple of stock indexes have set new records this morning.

Next week brings us the release of a handful of economic reports in addition to a couple of Treasury auctions that have the potential to affect rates. The data ranges from minor to very important, but all of it comes the latter part of the week. With nothing of importance set for Monday, we can expect weekend news and stock movement to drive bond trading as the new week starts.

If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would.... Lock if my closing was taking place within 7 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 21 and 60 days... Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from now.