Mortgage Rates Slightly Higher

Mortgage Rates Slightly Higher

Mortgage rates were just slightly higher on average for a third straight day.  Much of this week was spent focusing on the effects of China's decision to (sort of) stop manipulating its currency.  That was good for rates on Tuesday.  As soon as China (sort of) started manipulating its currency again, rates began moving higher.  If you need to catch up on that, we discussed it in more detail yesterday.  Long story short: there was some drama that resulted in low rates, and once the drama ebbed, rates moved back up.

Today was less about China and more about domestic economic data.  In general, it continues to argue against some of the weaker data seen last week.  Both of this morning's key reports were stronger than expected--one of them suggesting stronger inflation, the other, stronger manufacturing.  Stronger economic data tends to push rates higher and today was no exception, although the move was fairly well-contained.

To reiterate yesterday's thoughts on locking and floating, this move higher in rates suggests the recent positive trend (beginning July 14th) might be over.  It's a good time to take advantage of the gains we've seen between now and then.  While there's never any way to know if the weakness will continue, we do know how much ground we've gained AND how close we are to multi-month lows.  Think of it in terms of cashing in gains that have already been realized as opposed to rolling the dice on gains that might not come.

Most lenders continue to quote conventional 30yr fixed rates of 4.0% for top tier scenarios, though closing costs would be slightly higher today vs yesterday.  There are still a few lenders on either side of that by an eighth (3.875% or 4.125%).