Americans Seeing Personal Benefits of Brexit as Costs Hidden
- Plunge in mortgage rates opening another refinancing window
- Jobless claims, ADP signal employers’ outlook still resilient
Following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, mortgage rates in the U.S. have approached record lows and fewer people are being fired from their jobs than at any time in the last four decades. In other words, so far, so good for the American economy.
Brexit prompted investors to pour their money into the safety of U.S. Treasuries, pushing the average rate on a 30-year fixed home loan down to 3.41 percent this week, a three-year low and closer to the 3.31 percent reached in November 2012 that was the lowest in the modern era. The number of people filing claims for unemployment benefits last week declined to 254,000, the least since mid-April, which in turn were the fewest since 1973, according to figures Thursday from the Labor Department.