Let’s check in on how Consumer Confidence and mortgage interest rates fared during January.
First up, here’s the Consumer Confidence data as of March:
At 81.0, the Present Situation Index increased 0.7% between February and March, and is up 34% from a year earlier. The Present Situation Index is currently up 301% from its December 2009 low point, and sits at its highest level since April 2008. The Expectations Index rose even further in March, increasing 9.2% from February.
Here’s your chart of home mortgage 30-year interest rates via the Federal Reserve:
As of last week, the 30-year mortgage rate sits at 4.40%, down slightly from the high of 4.58% set back in August, but up more than a point from the low set in May of last year. Current interest rates are roughly on par with where they were in August 2011 and still two points below the 6.41% average rate during the height of the housing bubble through 2006.
Click below for the interactive Consumer Confidence chart (only works in Google Chrome).
You can use the sliders under the interactive chart below to zoom in on the data for a specific period.