Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch
Mortgage rates improved significantly to kick off the new year. The gains are a combination of actual improvement in bond markets and lenders lowering their guard from conservative holiday pricing strategies. In other words, lenders had been holding back a bit during the holidays. That’s normal and we’d discussed it as a factor. And now, not only are those conservative strategies fading, but underlying bond markets (which drive mortgage rates) are improving to boot. The positive double-whammy brings rates in line with–or lower than–anything else in the past 19 months . The most prevalently-quoted conforming 30yr fixed rate for top tier borrowers is now easily 3.875% and an increasing number of lenders are at 3.75% . All that having been said, it’s important to keep in mind that markets aren…(read more)