Mortgage Rates

Mortgage Rates Recover A Portion Of Friday's Weakness Mortgage Rates bounced back into slightly lower territory after rising abruptly on Friday afternoon. Thursday and Friday of last week marked the biggest 2-day move higher in rates since March, but unlike then, the current move took place very close to all-time lows on Wednesday. We begin the week in stronger territory in terms of markets, but with lenders still slightly hesitant to pass along all of the improvement to rate sheets. Nevertheless, Best-Execution for 30yr Fixed Conventional loans remains at 3.5% with some of the best-priced lenders still close to 3.375%. Part of the "long term guidance" section below discusses "going with the flow of gradually lower rates until we see the pattern definitively break." Friday was the first major risk of such a definitive break since early June. If rates were higher again today, we may well have been discussing a break and be changing the ongoing guidance to a more cautious tone. As it stands, we're still well within the scope of the long-term trend, but that doesn't mean that it will necessarily be a long time between now and the next threat to the pattern. The best candidates for confirming or changing the prevailing pattern of "low and sideways" will arrive in the last 3 days of the week with important central bank announcements at home and abroad, as well as the important Employment Situation Report on Friday. The frustrating thing about this week's big-ticket events is that Wednesday might make it look like we're heading one direction and Thursday might completely reverse that move.