Mortgage Rates Begin Week Holding Steady at Record Lows

By: Matthew Graham •

After setting new records on Friday, Mortgage Rates are absolutely flat to start the week.  That means that Best-Execution remains most appropriately at 3.875% although 3.75% continues to be as close as it's ever been to getting equal recognition.  Depending on the scenario in question, lower rates are available and in rare cases, could make sense. 

If you didn't catch Friday's Article, which went into a bit more detail on how we determine "Best-Execution," it's worth a read.  But the bottom line is really this: regardless of the actual interest rate levels, there's no other way to say the following: rates today and Friday are as low as they've ever been.  How long will this continue?  There's no way to know for sure, but we generally advocate a conservative approach with rates at all time lows.  "Conservative" in this sense simply means that history has shown us how quickly record-low rates can disappear.  While we certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility that rates can improve, we've already been experiencing the fact that further gains are hard-fought and take more time than gains seen in the middle of the range. 

 See Rates from Lenders in Your Area

Whatever your disposition toward locking vs floating, it makes sense to set yourself a "stop," of sorts, by deciding on a rate slightly higher than what you're currently being quoted, at which you'd lock at a loss if the market moves against you.  Locking in such a scenario can prove exceedingly frustrating more often than not as the higher probability eventuality has been for rates to return lower, but this pales in comparison to the potential frustration of rates NOT returning lower.

Today's BEST-EXECUTION Rates

  • 30YR FIXED -  3.875%, 3.75% as close as it's been
  • FHA/VA -3.75%
  • 15 YEAR FIXED -  3.375% / 3.25%
  • 5 YEAR ARMS -  2.625-3.25% depending on the lender

Ongoing Lock/Float Considerations

  • Rates and costs continue to operate near all time best levels
  • Current levels have experienced increasing resistance in improving much from here
  • There are technical reasons for that as well as fundamental reasons
  • Lenders tend to get busier when rates are in this "high 3's" level and can throttle their inbound volume by raising rates or costs.
  • While we don't necessarily think rates are destined to go higher, given the above facts, there seems to be more risk than reward regarding floating
  • But that will always be the case when rates operate near all-time levels, and as 2011 showed us, it doesn't always mean they're done improving.