Mortgage Rates Inch Closer to Historic Lows

Yesterday we noted that event in Europe were once again the dominant force moving markets, including the secondary mortgage market, albeit indirectly.  In a true testament to that fact, today's FOMC Announcement (Fed rate decision, although it's not that markets are considering that the Fed might change rates,  just waiting to hear what they have to say about other monetary policy decisions) did very little to move markets.  Mortgage rates held steady to slightly improved.

Today's Rates: 

• BESTEXECUTION 30YR FIXED -   more evenly split between 3.75 and 3.875
• FHA/VA - 3.75%
• 15 YEAR FIXED -  3.375%, still some 3.5's
• 5 YEAR ARMS -  low 3% range, huge variations from lender to lender.

Today's Guidance (mostly the same as yesterdays, and for good reason!) Rates this low make lock/float decisions much less difficult.   The lower rates go right now, the more aggressively we'd lean toward locking.  Yesterday we said "if Best-Execution hits 3.875% firmly with glimpses of 3.75% as it has only a few other times in the past, we literally can think of no reason to float at that point for anyone that needs or wants to refinance.   The lower rates go, the more we'll see resistance to further improvements and the more the risk outweighs the potential reward."  And now today, we've merely inched further along that potential chain of events.  Rates are the same to lower.  Lock bias increases accordingly.