Good Day for Mortgage Rates, But Volatility is Scary

As is eternally possible these days, news out of the Eurozone sent shockwaves through markets today and this time it worked to the advantage of Mortgage Rates, which improved at least one notch in terms of Best-Execution rates.

Essentially, this means Best-Ex rates have continued to bounce back and forth against the right-hand side of the graphic we put together to show the available mortgage note rates that are eligible to be slotted into the most prevalent "bucket" in the secondary mortgage market. 

(Keep in mind, if a scenario is anything other than flawless in every way, a note rate can certainly be over 4.25% these days.  Read the disclaimer at the bottom of the post if you need more clarification).

Today's Rates: 

• BESTEXECUTION 30YR FIXED -   Mostly 4.125%.  Some 4.0's
• FHA/VA - 3.75%, and still plenty of 3.875%'s
• 15 YEAR FIXED -  Mostly 3.5%
• 5 YEAR ARMS -  low 3% range, huge variations from lender to lender.

 Guidance: Big moves possible tomorrow...  in EITHER direction.  We've been saying "we're encouraged by rates' recent ability to draw a line in the sand at 4.25%," but have noted concern over European-inspired volatility, and those divergent sentiments haven't been more true than they are heading into tomorrow.  On the positive side, 4.25% has held like a champ, and just had a big bounce last night.  On the other hand, if bond markets suffer heading out of the EU summit (mid-day tomorrow), 4.25% could be in jeopardy fairly quickly.  We feel optimistic about 4.25%'s ongoing ability to stick around, but the volatility is scary.  Scary enough to favor locking even though we'd probably be feeling more floaty without that volatility in place.  The possibility that rates get lower in spite of the increased disposition to lock is part of the frustration of  dealing with volatility.  But better safe than sorry.