Mortgage Interest Rate Market Guide

8:23 pst

Lets hope the news coming out of the Fed yesterday is a sign of good things to come. As goes January, as goes the year.

Today, things are looking very good with rates. We are turning a corner where we are seeing mortgage rates improve steadily. A direct impact of the good news from the Fed. Congratulations!

30 year platinum 5.0% with zero points today.

Keep climbling little green line, keep climbing. Daddy needs 300 knocked off his mortgage.

9:16 pst .. rates are starting to rise now 

Interest rates didn't open up well today. We were experiencing increased upside pressure until about an hour ago when the MBS market started to rally. Whats working against us is the stock market improvement spurred by the confirmation that GMAC will receive the 5 or 6 billion they needed to sustain themselves. This was viewed as a positive stock/equity market force pulling buyers away from mortgage backed securities and towards stocks.

We're in the 5.5 tp 5.75% range for platinum conventional borrowers with no points on a 30 year fixed. 

Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your Holidays and are happily looking forward to a wonderful New Year celebration. Today is shaping out to be good day for rates so why not lock going into the New Year and be done with timing the market. Light trading volume today. As the below graph indicates, we are seeing improvement on the 30 year bonds .

11:00am cst: my recommendation for platnum borrowers would to lock a 30 year fixed at around 4.875% with a one point charge if you can find it in your region.

2:34pm cst: Rates are deteriorating. We are now seeing pricing for the worse.

Mortgage rates didn't fair well today due to bond selling pressure. Trend was worse until a short midday rally. Even with the midday rally we didn't see any rate improvements come over until about 2pm. At this point, rates continue to be calm. Inflation pressures were benign today. I have to think there was a lot of year end bond selling for tax reasons. We'll know more if that is or is not the case when/if buying picks up after the first. Enjoy your Christmas. 

Rates were on a rollcoaster ride today. We started up a tiny bit from Fridays rates, got worse in the middle of the day and the upward momentum faded as we got closer to market close. 

I just got another rate sheet and its another reprice for the worse. Sorry folks but welcome to around world.

Even with the dow down, which usually is good for rates, rates closed worse. Mortgage backed securities experienced a sell off today. Since there were more sellers than buyers, the sellers need to make these securities more attractive for the buyers. How do you make an investment more attractive? Increase the rate of return ( higher interest rates ). Voila, higher rates to consumers also.

Lights off untill tomorrow. Take care.

The madness continues. Did I even need to say that. Mortgage rates are about as reliable as the dollar currency fluctuations. You and I were also hit with the auto bailout which excited the dow for a tiny bit which undermined the mortgage rates until the Dow yet again turned down.

Mortgage rates saw a spike Wednesday and Thursday, only to cool off today. It looks like rates will open better on Monday so if you didn't lock, its ok, you might do better Monday. I still feel that we are headed lower but rates are certainly a game of inches which can be given back 5x easier than they are earned.

We're in the low fives for platnum borrowers. If you'd like to pay origination points, you can comfortably acquire rates in the high 4's. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend.

Mortgage Rates

Its been a strange last couple of days. By all accounts we hit a bottom on rates Tuesday, rates came back up on Wednesday and this morning, then we started to improve just a half hour ago.

The market for mortgage backed securities is not strong at this time but the flight to security kicked in as the stock market started to tank. The dow is currently at -131. By all accounts we should be in the high four's but the credit spread for mortgages is still high. The Fed and Treasury are working to correct this aversion the mortgage investment products, they just haven't pulled the trigger yet. 

Still good rates for most but a little tums is in order. 

Dow closed down 99 but the rate market faired worse for mortgage consumers. I'm seeing across the board rate increases by lenders due to increased market demand for refinances. Seems like a pure supply and demand issues.

I have to imagine one or two of the big lenders rolled out rate increases due to increased refi demand and it trickled through the system to the little lenders- like a domino effect. I'd put money that Chase, Wells, B of A or Citi got the ball rolling. The monoplies have us by the short hairs.

The lenders are taking advantage of the increase in loan volume and offsetting the increased demand with increased revenue.

If you didn't lock this morning, you lost .25% in rate. Sorry for the bad news. Welcome to our world.

As we all know the Fed cut rates by a surprizing 75 basis points. The move was done in an effort to counter a sagging economy. An economy that posted one of the lowest consumer goods price index drops since the 30's. This means that rates have downward pressure on them. The only thing that can reverse the trend now is stagflation ( it seems ). The last time we had high job losses and high inflation was during Carters administration. OPEC has decided in deep cuts in oil production which was also one of the causes of the 70's stagflation.

As far as mortgage rates go, you are now hovering in the 5.25 range for 30 year fixed platnum customers. If you can save money every month by refinancing, calculate your savings and cost to refinance and see if its worth the endeavor. Call if you need assistance or a national referral.

Dear Mortgage Shopper,

Mike is not here right now but he called and wanted me to let you know that rates are still good. Nothing special happened today on the bond markets so basically rates stayed the same. For a thirty year fixed mortgage loans to Fannie, you'd be paying about 5.5% if you were a platnum borrower. FHA is around 5.75% for top tier FHA borrowers.

Don't believe what the press tells you. Remember, they can't sell papers or news unless its panic rich. "If it bleeds, it reads" is what they teach them in Journalism school.

Enjoy the deep discounts on mortgage rates because when the rates turn, it will be quick in the other direction.

Mikes Wife and loving assistant

Bond market rallied... mortgage talk for things got more better with rates. 

Looking for good rates... you got them now. 30 year fixed rates for those platnum borrowers is in the mid 5's. If your not Platnum that's ok because rates for you are a little higher but still outstanding. Don't be too greedy take them now while they are hot because when it changes for the worse it will be quuuuuuuuuuuick.

Whats a platnum borrower? 740 plus credit score, great income and at least 20% equity in the property. No matter what anyone promises you, you can't be a platnum borrower unless you have platnum credit, income and equity. Some borrowers think that if they talk to the right person things will magically change. Silly rabbit, tricks are for kids. Need I say more?

Mortgage backed securities were fairly flat today which means rates stayed about the same. 30 Year mortgages are hovering in the mid 5's so take advantage if you can. Here's a story about Blackrock CEO Fink talking about creating more demand and mortgage velocity with lower rates:

UPDATE: BlackRock's Fink urges 'massive' mortgage purchase program

December 11, 2008 1:46 PM ET
By Frayser White 

BlackRock Inc. Chairman and CEO Laurence Fink loudly decried the U.S. government's decision not to purchase illiquid bank assets under TARP as had originally been planned.

He said the U.S. Treasury Department will likely ask Congress to approve more funds for the bailout of the financial system, with the ultimate amount totaling more than the original $700 billion requested in September.

Speaking Dec. 11 at a financial services conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs, Fink said the money injected under the Treasury's capital purchase program has "disappeared" as a result of the crash in asset values that attended the government's decision not to buy illiquid assets.

"Step one, you need to stabilize assets," he said. "I think they forgot you cannot deploy capital if you do not stabilize assets."

To solve the underlying housing slump, Fink recommended a "massive purchase program" to spur demand. He said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could buy a trillion dollars in mortgages without needing congressional approval, as part of a plan to bring mortgage rates to 4% to 4.5%.

The mortgage rate market opened worse this morning, got bumpy than started to improve once the effects of the auctions picked up momentum. The market mproved late in the day which is/was good for mortgage rates. The Feds efforts to buy mortgage backed securities is still creating positive ripple effects even on days that the stock market does well.

This is probably an indication of three things: (1) the risk aversion trade is alive and well, (2) the Treasury market is implying the latest stock rally is likely to fail and, (3) there is growing concern about deflation. Simply put deflation is causing continue decreases in mortgage rates.

Rates are now firmly in the upper 5's for a FNMA Tier one 30 year mortgage.

The crazy ups and downs of the market have exhausted you, me and most mortgage information seeking readers. Friday saw the mortgage backed securities markets get worse, Monday was a mixed day and today was an improvement all the while each day showing uncertainty to say the least. We didn't have much economic news

Today was a good day for mortgage rate seekers. You were given a break from the upward trend of the last few days. Lets hope that it continues for the sake of consumers and the economy.

My recommendation today if you are closing within 30 days: float

Current FNMA 30 year fixed rate average is hoverinig at or just under 6.0%. Take advantage because when the inflation monster shows its ugly head it will come fast.

Mortgage rate market didn't do so well on Friday which was a contrary to expectations/opinions from most analysts expectations. Hence they opened up worse this morning. The day was bumpy all day but closed in better shape. Some of that upward pressure subsided around two hours before close thankfully.

The bad news from the labor markets should have pushed rates down but had the opposite effect... any bad news was bad news for everyone. Treasury yields are the lowest they've been in a while.

I expect mortgage rates to improve but they are taking a break for the day. Look for some more rate improvement tomorrow.