Daily Mortgage Rate Commentary Archive

Fri, November 22, 8:01 PM

A Refreshingly Boring Week For Mortgage Rates - Fri, November 22, 8:01 PM

Starting in early October, mortgage rates experienced significant volatility, meaning the average day over day change was much bigger than normal. While the term "volatility" technically ...

Thu, November 21, 9:26 PM

Calmer Trend Continues For Mortgage Rates - Thu, November 21, 9:26 PM

They may not be low. In fact, they may still be a lot higher than you want, but at least they haven't been too volatility this week. For the 7th day in a row, the top tier, convention...

Wed, November 20, 9:22 PM

Mortgage Rates Have Been Much Calmer, But They're Still High - Wed, November 20, 9:22 PM

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....

Tue, November 19, 9:27 PM

Mortgage Rates Only Modestly Lower Despite Seemingly Big News - Tue, November 19, 9:27 PM

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.&nb...

Mon, November 18, 9:01 PM

Mortgage Rates Didn't Move Much Over The Weekend - Mon, November 18, 9:01 PM

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 mo...

Fri, November 15, 7:54 PM

Mortgage Rates End Higher, But Not As High as This Morning - Fri, November 15, 7:54 PM

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'...

Thu, November 14, 9:15 PM

Mortgage Rates Roughly Unchanged Yet Again Despite Bond Market Losses - Thu, November 14, 9:15 PM

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...

Wed, November 13, 8:28 PM

Mortgage Rates Roughly Unchanged Today - Wed, November 13, 8:28 PM

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 a...

Tue, November 12, 8:35 PM

Mortgage Rates Jump Back Above 7% - Tue, November 12, 8:35 PM

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 se...

Fri, November 8, 10:22 PM

Mortgage Rates Lower Again As Lenders Catch Up With Bonds - Fri, November 8, 10:22 PM

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 fel...

Thu, November 7, 9:33 PM

Tricky Day... Mortgage Rates Fall Significantly, But Not Because of The Fed - Thu, November 7, 9:33 PM

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 ...

Wed, November 6, 8:03 PM

Please Forget Everything You Think You Know About Fed Rate Cuts - Wed, November 6, 8:03 PM

Mortgage rates spent the entire month of October moving higher at a fairly quick pace. Some of that had to do with stronger economic data, but at least as much had to do with the bond mark...

Tue, November 5, 9:00 PM

Mortgage Rates Start Higher, But Fall in Afternoon - Tue, November 5, 9:00 PM

More often than not, mortgage lenders only set rates once a day. Their decisions are based on trading levels in the underlying bond market. Even though bonds are constantly moving, it doesn...

Mon, November 4, 8:16 PM

Mortgage Rates Start Week Slightly Lower as Election Volatility Works Both Ways - Mon, November 4, 8:16 PM

Love it or hate it, election-related volatility has been having a big impact on the bond market and, thus, mortgage rates . Most of the volatility has resulted in higher rates, but there w...

Fri, November 1, 8:50 PM

Rates Refuse to Drop Ahead of Election. How About After? - Fri, November 1, 8:50 PM

It is our longstanding policy to strictly avoid politics except in cases where the political realm legitimately intersects with relevant events for rates. Now is clearly one of those times. The d...

Thu, October 31, 7:35 PM

Mortgage Rates at 4 Month Highs. More Volatility Ahead - Thu, October 31, 7:35 PM

Mortgage rates rates moved moderately higher today, and while that leaves the average 30yr fixed rate only slightly higher than it was on Tuesday morning (7.09 vs 7.08), it's also the highest ra...

Wed, October 30, 7:57 PM

Economic Data Keeping Pressure on Mortgage Rates - Wed, October 30, 7:57 PM

The jobs report that came out at the beginning of October was a big wake up call for interest rates . Up until then, the prevailing belief was that the labor market was progressively softe...

Tue, October 29, 7:56 PM

Mortgage Rates Hit Another Multi-Month High Despite Afternoon Recovery - Tue, October 29, 7:56 PM

Mortgage rates tend to be updated only once per day. Lenders set rates based on trading levels in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) which are essentially bonds that are tied to cash flows f...

Mon, October 28, 7:58 PM

Mortgage Rates Back to 7% - Mon, October 28, 7:58 PM

It's no mystery that mortgage rates have had a terrible October. As of last Friday, the average lender's top tier 30yr fixed rates were up to 6.90--an increase of more than 0.625% this mo...

Fri, October 25, 4:35 PM

Mortgage Rates Effectively Unchanged Yet Again - Fri, October 25, 4:35 PM

Mortgage rates reached their highest level of the week on Wednesday and haven't really moved since then. Technically each subsequent day saw a microscopic reduction in the average top tier...

Thu, October 24, 8:02 PM

Mortgage Rates Finally Win One, Albeit a Small One - Thu, October 24, 8:02 PM

Mortgage rates have risen every day since October 15th and some of the jumps have been fairly big. That followed an even bigger increase earlier in the month with the whole ordeal accounti...

Wed, October 23, 8:09 PM

Mortgage Rates Tick Up to Another Multi-Month High - Wed, October 23, 8:09 PM

Mortgage rates have been moving two directions recently and both of them are "up." Only the pace changes. Today's pace was modest to moderate, but because we were already at the high...

Tue, October 22, 7:47 PM

Mortgage Rates Much Steadier Today, But Still a Bit Higher - Tue, October 22, 7:47 PM

Mortgage rates jumped to their highest levels since late July yesterday. Underlying market movement wasn't readily attributable to any singular headline or economic report. Leading t...

Mon, October 21, 7:42 PM

Rates Jump Quickly to Highest Levels Since July - Mon, October 21, 7:42 PM

By the smallest of margins, mortgage rates are back up to levels last seen in July. That means we've gone from being fairly close to 6% in mid-September to being nearly as close to 7% tod...

Fri, October 18, 7:52 PM

Mortgage Rates Mostly Steady This Week After Uneventful Friday - Fri, October 18, 7:52 PM

There hasn't been much day to day movement in mortgage rates after the big jump caused by the jobs report earlier in the month. That jump ended on Monday the 7th and the average 30yr fixe...

Thu, October 17, 7:45 PM

Mortgage Rates Move Higher After Stronger Economic Data - Thu, October 17, 7:45 PM

Mortgage rates are driven by the bond market and bonds consistently take cues from economic data. Traders have been waiting on this Thursday's economic data ever since last Thursday, large...

Wed, October 16, 7:44 PM

Mortgage Rates Hold Steady Ahead of Retail Sales Data - Wed, October 16, 7:44 PM

Mortgage rates have been holding in a fairly narrow range since the middle of last week and today was one of the least interesting additions to the trend. The average lender is essentially...

Tue, October 15, 8:03 PM

Mortgage Rates Sideways to Slightly Lower - Tue, October 15, 8:03 PM

The average mortgage lender is quoting rates that are just a fraction of a hair lower today compared to last Friday. Lenders were either closed or otherwise not able to update rates yesterd...

Fri, October 11, 7:28 PM

Mortgage Rates Side-Step Into Holiday Weekend - Fri, October 11, 7:28 PM

While this week's rates were substantially higher than most of last week's, if we remove a few flashes of volatility, the average lender stayed very close to Monday morning's levels. ...

Thu, October 10, 7:59 PM

Here's What's Really Going on With Mortgage Rates This Week - Thu, October 10, 7:59 PM

We can appreciate that the daunting task of determining what "the" actual mortgage rate may be at any given moment. The word "the" is singled out in the previous sentence because there isn'...

Wed, October 9, 7:28 PM

Mortgage Rates Sideways to Higher - Wed, October 9, 7:28 PM

Today brought the release of the minutes from the most recent Fed meeting in addition to numerous Fed speeches and the scheduled auction of 10yr Treasuries. Each of these events has at leas...

Tue, October 8, 7:50 PM

Mortgage Rates Finally Level Off After Quickest Spike in Months - Tue, October 8, 7:50 PM

Mortgage rates spiked at their fastest pace in months on Friday following the jobs report and yesterday added insult to injury, making for a total increase of nearly 3/8ths of a percent (.375%) ...

Mon, October 7, 7:24 PM

Highest Mortgage Rates in 2 Months - Mon, October 7, 7:24 PM

It's been a strange and frustrating couple of weeks for anyone who mistakenly believed that mortgage rates would move lower after the Fed rate cut. To be sure, there is plenty of that sen...

Fri, October 4, 4:04 PM

Massive Jump in Mortgage Rates After Jobs Report - Fri, October 4, 4:04 PM

Today's much-anticipated jobs report ended up coming out much stronger than expected. A stronger result was all but guaranteed to cause carnage (relative) in the mortgage market and that's ...

Thu, October 3, 8:59 PM

Consistently Higher Rates Since Fed Rate Cut, But Friday Could be BIG - Thu, October 3, 8:59 PM

Depending on how tuned in you've been to changes in our daily rate tracking, the news may be getting old at this point. Rates have done almost nothing but move higher ever since the Fed cut...

Wed, October 2, 7:52 PM

Mortgage Rates Near 1-Month Highs, But That's Still Pretty Great - Wed, October 2, 7:52 PM

Mortgage rates moved higher today after an employment report suggested that Friday's forthcoming Employment Situation (the BIG jobs report) might come in slightly better than expected. The...

Tue, October 1, 8:04 PM

Mortgage Rates Begin The Month With a Modest Victory - Tue, October 1, 8:04 PM

While the past 5 months have been well-stocked with victories for mortgage rates , the past week and a half brought a bit of a pull back. Most of that upward momentum can be chalked up to ...

Mon, September 30, 9:27 PM

Mortgage Rates Moderately Higher to Begin The Week - Mon, September 30, 9:27 PM

Mortgage rates have generally been moving higher since the Fed cut rates 2 weeks ago. We've discussed and explained that paradox exhaustively and can now move back to tracking the normal a...

Fri, September 27, 9:10 PM

Refi Booms, Loan Limits, and Mortgage Rate Misdirection - Fri, September 27, 9:10 PM

'Tis the season for things to be something other than what they appear to be, apparently. Lenders are talking about new loan limits, but they haven't officially changed. News stories are saying r...

Thu, September 26, 7:25 PM

Mortgage Rates Are 110% NOT Lower This Week - Thu, September 26, 7:25 PM

Because we created the industry's first daily mortgage rate index based on actual lender rate sheets without any subjective distortions, and because the longest-standing mortgage rate index in th...

Wed, September 25, 8:14 PM

Mortgage Rates Highest in More Than 2 Weeks - Wed, September 25, 8:14 PM

Mortgage rates hit their lowest levels in more than a year and a half last Tuesday as the bond market put the finishing touches on its preparation for the Fed announcement the following day.&nbs...

Tue, September 24, 8:32 PM

Mortgage Rates Start Higher, But Fall After Economic Data - Tue, September 24, 8:32 PM

The Federal Reserve is far from the only game in town when it comes to exerting influence on interest rates . That's a loaded statement, of course, considering we spent last week explainin...

Mon, September 23, 8:35 PM

Mortgage Rates Move Slightly Higher to Start New Week - Mon, September 23, 8:35 PM

Mortgage rates rose modestly last week after hitting long term lows before the Fed announced its 0.50% rate cut. In not so many words, mortgage rates had already gotten in position for tha...

Fri, September 20, 7:42 PM

The Wild Week That Wasn't - Fri, September 20, 7:42 PM

Credit where credit is due: the rate market did an outstanding job of getting out in front of the Fed rate cut as well as the changes to the Fed's rate cut outlook as communicated in the summary ...

Thu, September 19, 7:47 PM

Mortgage Rates Are Actually HIGHER This Week - Thu, September 19, 7:47 PM

Today's release of Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey took at bad problem and made it worse. Freddie's survey methodology means that today's reported rate is an average of the 5 d...

Wed, September 18, 8:59 PM

Yes! Mortgage Rates Really Did Move HIGHER After The Fed Rate Cut - Wed, September 18, 8:59 PM

We publish daily coverage of mortgage rate movement and have done so for nearly 20 years now. It's a great place to quickly check in on rate trends and to get a sense of what's true and wha...

Tue, September 17, 7:19 PM

What Might a Fed Rate Cut do For Mortgage Rates? - Tue, September 17, 7:19 PM

Mortgage rates have fallen nearly 2% from last year's peak. Much of that decrease can be viewed as the normal phenomenon of longer term rates getting in position for changes in short term ...

Mon, September 16, 7:18 PM

Mortgage Rates Inch Lower to Begin Potentially Wild Week - Mon, September 16, 7:18 PM

The new week began on a relatively quiet note in terms of mortgage rate movement and the underlying bond market. There was modest volatility earlier this morning with a Manufacturing ...

Fri, September 13, 7:55 PM

Low Volatility in Mortgage Rates, But Next Week Could be Very Different - Fri, September 13, 7:55 PM

We've talked a lot about why the Fed rate cut will have no additional positive impact on mortgage rates next week. Everything the market can already reasonably foresee about what the Fed ...

Thu, September 12, 8:19 PM

Mortgage Rates Move Slightly Higher For First Time This Month - Thu, September 12, 8:19 PM

While it's true that there have only been 8 business days so far this month, it's also true that today is the only one of the 8 where mortgage rates haven't been lower than the previous day for...