Last Week in Review: The volatility out of Europe continued, along with the arrival of Friday's Jobs Report for October.

Forecast for the Week: It's a quiet week when it comes to economic reports, plus the Bond Market is closed Friday for Veterans Day.

"The only things we can be sure of are death and taxes." Benjamin Franklin. And lately, volatility in the markets is another certainty...and last week was no exception. Read on to learn about the week's big newsmakers, and what they meant for home loan rates.

Friday's Jobs Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was a big market mover, showing that 80,000 jobs were created in October, which was just slightly below expectations. In addition, 104,000 private sector jobs were created, also just below expectations while the unemployment rate dropped to 9%, from a previous reading of 9.1%. A big positive in the report was once again upward revisions to prior month's readings, which showed 102,000 more jobs created in the two previous months than what was originally reported.

The takeaway from the report is that it doesn't appear the economy is slipping into another recession...at least not yet. The labor market continues to create jobs, but at a very slow and uneven pace. Until we see significant job growth--north of 150,000 each month, for a sustained amount of time--we won't see meaningful improvement in the economy or the unemployment rate. This turn means that rates should continue to hover at low levels, albeit in a volatile fashion.

Also limiting how high our rates can go is the ongoing European drama. The removal of the referendum (Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou had announced he would put the Euro rescue plan to a referendum or vote amongst the Greek people) is one piece of uncertainty taken away from the market--and that was a big one. However, there are still so many things that can and probably will go wrong until the European leaders put a big, realistic, attainable solution into action. For instance, Italy's Bond yields continue to inch higher, suggesting that their debt problems won't easily be solved and continue to creep towards an unmanageable state.

Plus, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday during his speech after the regularly scheduled meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee that purchases of Mortgage Bonds are being considered--which is another factor that could benefit home loan rates.

The bottom line is that home loan rates are still near historic lows, which makes now a great time to purchase or refinance a home.