Mortgage Rates Have Been Much Calmer, But They're Still High
Remember October and the first part of November--not because of the election, but rather because of the relentless rise in mortgage rates? Would you rather forget? You're not alone. It was the fastest rate spike since 2022, and it was made all the more memorable because it put an end to the first real uptick in refinance activity in just as long. In the days following the electi...
Mortgage Rates Only Modestly Lower Despite Seemingly Big News
Ask your favorite curmudgeonly old market watcher and they'll be happy to explain what "always" happens in financial markets when there's breaking news regarding large scale geopolitical risk. It would be a surprise if you didn't hear a phrase like "flight to safety," the most common shorthand reference to selling stocks and buying bonds. Why would mortgage rates care about all that? ...
Mortgage Rates Didn't Move Much Over The Weekend
The average top tier conventional 30yr fixed rate was just a hair over 7% on Friday afternoon and the same is true at the start of the new week. Rates are based on bonds, but while bonds move constantly throughout the day, mortgage lenders only adjust rates once per day unless there's excessive volatility in the bond market. This concept has been important, recently, because there's be...
Mortgage Rates End Higher, But Not As High as This Morning
This afternoon's mortgage rates are higher than yesterday's latest levels. That's a result of bond market weakness seen late yesterday and earlier this morning. Why would yesterday's market movement matter? Simply put, it was too late in the day for many lenders to go to the trouble of adjusting their rate sheets. Bonds continued to weaken this morning, making it an ...
Mortgage Rates Roughly Unchanged Yet Again Despite Bond Market Losses
Losses... weakness... selling pressure... When any of these things happen in the bond market, it puts upward pressure on interest rates. Mortgage rates are primarily determined by bonds, after all. Today started out well enough for the bond market. This allowed mortgage lenders to set today's rates roughly in line with yesterday's levels. That makes for 3 days ...
Mortgage Rates Roughly Unchanged Today
While there's been plenty of movement in the average mortgage rate on any given day recently, today was not one of them. 30yr fixed rates remained above 7%, but technically fell 0.01% (an amount so small that it may as well be considered an absence of change). Despite the flat day-over-day result, there continues to be much more intraday movement than normal. Mortgage lend...
Mortgage Rates Jump Back Above 7%
Last Thursday and Friday offered some hope that the persistent move to higher rates was finally leveling off. It wasn't necessarily a rational hope, but if nothing else, it was "nice" to see the average 30yr fixed move back below 7%. Even then, we cautioned against viewing the recovery as indicative of ongoing success. Now today, we see why. Bonds (which dictate rates) have move...
Mortgage Rates Lower Again As Lenders Catch Up With Bonds
The bond market dictates day to day movement for all manner of interest rates, including mortgages. On election night, bond yields (another word for "rates") spiked as soon as traders felt the results were evident. The following morning, mortgage-backed bonds started out much weaker and mortgage rates were at the highest level in months. Fast forward two days and mortgage rates are ba...
Tricky Day... Mortgage Rates Fall Significantly, But Not Because of The Fed
There's a distinct risk that, even in the financial community, that people will look back on today's drop in interest rates and conclude it must have something to do with the Federal Reserve's latest policy announcement. After all the Fed did cut its policy rate by 0.25% today, and the Fed was the only big ticket event on the calendar. Unfortunately, almost all of the improvement in rates w...
